Provinces sick and tired over treatment

Gary Caffell
Who's kidding who?
NZRU officials are off their tree if they think we peasants haven't worked out just why they have relented on their decision to give Northland and Tasman the drop kick from the Air NZ Cup competition.
The big boys bit off more than they could chew, that's why.
For some unfathomable reason they seemed to think that once the two unions concerned had gone through the grieving process they would simply roll over and die.
It's a classic case of the national hierarchy failing to understand what the provinces actually want from them.
Yes, there is an understanding that the All Blacks are the flagship of the sport and therefore have to be treated as priority number one.
But never, never should the emphasis put on them or competitions like the Super 14, be allowed to completely overshadow what is happening to the game at provincial or club level.
Which is something which seems to be happening all too often these days.
The Air NZ Cup, and the Heartland championship below it, are vital ingredients of our rugby fabric. If they are not in good shape then neither is the code itself.
Agreed, the provincial unions themselves have to be prepared to do their share to ensure their houses are kept in order and some are obviously better than others in that regard.
But they also need to know their interests are being looked after in the best possible fashion by national office, and, quite frankly, you often have to wonder whether that is the case.
The Northland and Tasman debacle is an excellent case in point.
How bad a public relations blunder was it that they should be told that their Air NZ Cup days were numbered after this season's competition had actually got underway.
Worse still, there was no explanation of why except that the bosses had decided two of the 14 sides had to go for reasons of cost and they were the unlucky ones.
That Northland and Tasman were up in arms at news so shocking being literally dumped on them is hardly surprising, is it?
And they didn't exactly find it difficult to encourage support from other unions throughout the country either. The NZRU were public enemy number one, and they deserved to be.
With criticism coming from all angles you would have thought the NZRU would have at least tried to regain some ground by coming clean on the criteria which apparently put Northland and Tasman out the back door.
But they stayed mum with the consequence the rumour-mongers had a field day, and head office had only themselves to blame for it.
For Northland and Tasman, of course, the level of opposition was music to their ears and once they put plans in place to appeal the decision they basically backed the NZRU into a corner from which there was only one escape.
Egg on their faces they might have had to endure but returning to the status quo for at least the next couple of seasons meant the continuing flurry of bullets coming their way would abate and that the financial costs of a lengthy appeal process were avoided.
They say that every cloud has a silver lining and perhaps their latest botch up will finally hammer it home to those at the NZRU that the provinces are sick and tired of being treated as second class citizens, and that they are no longer in the mood to accept that as the norm.
Or do pigs really fly?