Title race thrown wide open

With several of the extended Northland squad missing - or playing bit parts - in club rugby today , the race for the Southern Districts title has been thrown wide open.
With seven players in the Northland squad, second-placed Hikurangi's preparation and the balance of their side for their crunch home match with Hora Hora has been heavily affected.
Justin Davies will start for Northland on Wednesday against North Harbour in Kaitaia and will be stood down from today's match, while Tim Dow, Rhyan Caine, Pat O'Connor, Rhyan Caine and Bronson Murray will be available for half a game, as they will start Wednesday's hit out against North Harbour on the bench. All this has made Hikurangi's coach Stu Cook's week a hectic one.
"Not knowing the Northland team ahead of this weekend's round has been quite difficult - especially as we didn't know who we had available until the last minute ... you train with one team ready to go and then you have to fit the Northland players in - it's good having the guys back don't get me wrong, it's just not ideal planning for the game," he said.
The schedule isn't the best for Hikurangi. Next week they play the  Premier Grade leaders, the Western Sharks in Dargaville.
Sharks coach Myles Ferris has already made his dissatisfaction known about the competition's best players missing out on the playoffs and believes the crossover between the two competitions puts too much power in Northland coach Bryce Woodward's hands.
"We were told at the beginning of the year that our NPC players would be available throughout the club rugby season ... the New Zealand Maori game here meant that the schedule was put back a week but without (Woodward) really thinking about it he could have a big impact on who wins the final," he said.
All club rugby was postponed on June 12 to allow rugby fans to watch the NZ Maori fixture against the Barbarians at Toll Stadium, further impacting on club-representative player competition.
The Sharks will have to rest three of their top players today with Luke Hamilton, Mateo Malupo and Sam Barker all in Northland's starting line-up against North Harbour.
Ferris and the other coaches know it's not Woodward's fault - he has his own competition to think about - but believe after the same issue was raised last season, it needs to be given further attention.
Northland Rugby Union chief executive Jim Smillie said the issue would certainly be addressed by the Rugby Committee.
"The Maori game was a one-off opportunity and we wanted to make sure everyone could attend the game from all around the North, but this is an issue that we'll have to look at and hopefully we can do something about it," he said.
Smillie said that with the World Cup likely to seriously affect the ITM Cup schedule next season, with less games likely to be played and with more week day games, the club rugby season may also see some changes.
"Given that we now know better the World Cup and Super-15 constraints are we'll be trying to fit the club and rep rugby around them.
"It's a bit of a jig-saw puzzle at the moment and we've yet to resolve how we're going to deal with it," Smillie said.