Rugby: Rumblings intensify over NPC imbalance

By Chris Rattue

Chiefs rugby boss Gary Dawson has hit back at claims from NPC coaches that the Super 12 system is creating haves and have-nots.

North Harbour's Wayne Shelford, Northland's Bryce Woodward and Counties Manukau's Mac McCallion have all claimed over the past week that their sides are NPC poor relations struggling to compete against professional opposition.

After North Harbour's 54-25 win over Northland at Albany on Saturday, Shelford claimed his union was drifting between the big-city sides and smaller provinces like Southland and Northland.

Shelford said the major unions and Super 12 bases were controlling the game, and he was forced into "trying to get amateurs to train like professionals."

"There is a big void between the amateurs and the professionals ... North Harbour is halfway between."

Shelford said cities like Auckland, with big test venues and added sponsorship pulling power, had advantages that smaller unions could never overcome in developing title-challenging teams.

The former All Black captain predicted the Super 12 would eventually be expanded, with each team having a Colts side which would develop future players. The NPC would become a low-profile amateur competition where Super 12 scouts would find the odd "flyer" to bring up to professional ranks.

Woodward said the smaller provinces were desperate for support and were getting a pittance out of their Super 12 franchise relationships.

"Northland got less than $50,000 from its last year in the Chiefs - Auckland gets more than $1 million out of the Blues," he said.

"We've bred enough good players to be competitive but we're losing them. It is bad news for New Zealand rugby. If something isn't done about it they might as well go to a six-team [NPC] competition."

Shelford and Woodward were echoing earlier words from McCallion. There have already been claims from some in the Steelers union that they do not share an equal partnership with Waikato in the Chiefs.

But Dawson explained yesterday that Super 12 profits were shared on a formula based on population and playing numbers in each union. It was a formula agreed to by the Chiefs board, and Waikato got "slightly more" than Counties Manukau in the profit split.

Dawson, the Waikato CEO, said it was inevitable that smaller unions like Northland would struggle to match the big guns, but that was due to economic factors and not the Super 12 setup.

And he said it was wrong to lump a union such as his in with those like Auckland and Canterbury, who had much larger populations, greater sponsorship attraction and the advantage of having major test venues.

"Mac McCallion claimed Counties had only one fulltime professional but they have got 10 or 11 players on the same sort of Super 12 contracts that a lot of the Waikato players have," said Dawson.

"The administration fee we get is agreed to by the Chiefs board and if they have got any complaints, I have never heard them raised with us or to the New Zealand Rugby Union.

"I think it is a mistake to just look at this year's results and say the big cities have an advantage. Look at last year - Taranaki made the semis but where were Auckland? Some of the problems might actually be within the provinces.

"The reality is that provinces like Northland will struggle because they have a smaller population and economy. But I believe Waikato, Taranaki, Counties and North Harbour are in a similar position and we actually have some advantages like more passionate supporters and excellent local sponsors."

Shelford and Woodward's comments provided a political finale to Saturday's match, where North Harbour overcame a diabolical performance by their scrum.

The home side's big win was aided by three intercept tries, and as Shelford noted: "We didn't play particularly well ... we had a lot of luck. We played a lot better against Otago and Auckland. We've got a lot of problems up front."