KEY POINTS:
The All Blacks may return from France in October as World Cup heroes but that may not stop them being snubbed by their home unions.
Waikato coach Warren Gatland believes the time is fast approaching when unions will decide that having All Blacks on their books doesn't represent
value for money.
And Auckland coach Pat Lam concedes his job will be made easier by not having to accommodate returning international players.
The All Blacks who contest this year's World Cup won't play any Air New Zealand Cup rugby this season but, even in a non-World Cup year, the number of appearances by senior All Blacks at provincial level has become severely limited.
Gatland says: "From the Waikato point of view, we are probably looking at some of our All Blacks that we are paying significant amounts of money to and seeing that they are actually not playing many games for us. We worked out we were paying some of our All Blacks $50,000 a game."
Unions with salary cap issues may soon start to question the value for money of having those players on their books, Gatland said. "That's going to put a lot of pressure back on the NZRU.
"That's the flaw in the system at the moment - you have centrally-contracted players but there are also two or three masters."
Lam isn't about to shed any tears over the absence of his All Blacks in this year's competition. In recent years they have been gradually phased back into the championship, depending on their Tri-Nations workload.
But this year that won't happen. While that will deny Lam the services of a clutch of world-class players, it also means he won't have to disrupt an established side to accommodate players who had been absent for the bulk of the season.
Having witnessed from close quarters the Blues' spectacular failure to reintegrate lock Ali Williams and wing Joe Rokocoko after their reconditioning, Lam is well aware just how disruptive the process can be. "For us it actually is a lot easier that the All Blacks don't come back. When they come back you have to chop and change - but now, whatever we start with, that is effectively what we've got. Certainly we'll miss the talent of the guys but, as a coach, you want to know what your boundaries are, who you have and then build."
Lam was also pleased the competition had been restructured, with last year's two-phase, two-group format being scrapped.
The uncertain nature of the second phase had been a logistical nightmare for administrators, who weren't able to make travel arrangements or begin marketing matches until late.
This year, teams will play a 10-match round-robin followed by quarter-finals, semifinals and a final.
The main negative of the new format is that not all teams will face each other during the round-robin. Cross-town rivals Auckland and Harbour will only meet if they are drawn together in the playoffs, denying the competition of one of its most attractive fixtures.
Lam, who recently signed a three-year extension at Eden Park, won't know what resources he has this year until the World Cup squad is named a week before the provincial competition kicks off on July 17.
He will, however, name his squad for the tournament on June 29. Many of the smaller unions will have that date ringed on their calendar - as that is when members of the wider Auckland training squad who don't make the cut will become available on loan.
Some fringe members of the Auckland squad have already been offered contracts by the likes of Hawkes Bay, while Gatland is on the lookout for outside backs to cover the likely absence of Sitiveni Sivivatu and Mils Muliaina.
Last year player-rich Auckland's cautious approach to the loan process angered some unions, particularly Northland, who felt they were denied access to players unlikely to feature for Auckland. However, Auckland have already sent hooker Thomas McCartney to North Harbour and Lam says he is open to farming out players.
