KEY POINTS:
After 12 years of stability, professional rugby in New Zealand is on the verge of dramatic change. How dramatic will be determined at a franchise review this year, but the indications are the rugby landscape will be vastly different when Sanzar renegotiate their broadcast contract in 2010.
Everything from player contracts, to franchise ownership, to Super Rugby venues to All Black eligibility will be discussed and the appetite for change is ravenous.
The way Rob Nichol, head of the New Zealand Rugby Players Association sees it is: "If we don't do anything now then we really could become a feeder to the Northern Hemisphere.
"At the moment about 18 per cent of our membership is playing overseas, if we don't evolve, that could be 50 per cent."
And it's that threat of the player exodus continuing apace which is forcing every aspect of the professional game to come under scrutiny.
What it comes down to is this: the Northern Hemisphere game is growing ever richer now the clubs have struck a truce with their respective national unions.
Recent broadcast contracts for the English Premiership and French Top 14 are worth almost double their previous deals, sponsors are banging the door down and crowds are flooding to the games.
With such financial clout they can buy who they want and the Southern Hemisphere is not in the same league. That's always been the case but the worry now is the scale of player movement. More than 45 per cent of the registered players in the Top 14 are not eligible for France while last year there wasn't a single English No 8 playing in the Heineken Cup.
Dollar for dollar, the Southern Hemisphere can't compete and under the current model of contracting and ownership, that will never change.
What the NZPA would like to see is some radical thinking to create new revenue streams and boost the attractiveness of playing professionally in New Zealand.
That could mean opening All Black eligibility to players based in the Southern Hemisphere not just New Zealand. The Sanzar nations could come to an agreement where their players are able to move freely between the three nations.
If that shift were combined with ownership laws relaxed so private investors can take up to a 40 per cent stake, Nichol believes the talent drain could ease, and, in time, possibly even be reversed.
"Imagine a scenario where, say, Dan Carter comes off contract to the NZRU and the Waratahs, backed by some private investment _ and there are plenty of wealthy businesspeople in Sydney _ make him an offer that is too good to turn down.
"He'd remain part of the Super Rugby competition, remain accessible to New Zealand audiences and there would be no issue around player release when it came to the All Blacks.
"Like it or not, the involvement of Eric Watson in the Warriors has generated excitement and interest as has Russell Crowe at the Rabitohs. We have to be bold to look at ways we can involve private capital and give them a stake in the game."
One of those ways might be to create joint venture Super Rugby franchises in markets such as Asia and America which are funded partly by Sanzar, partly by private enterprise.
These new teams could be used as a means to bring back overseas Southern Hemisphere players while also developing talent in America, Japan and Argentina.
And while there is some suspicion about the NZRU's claims of developing world rugby around their cash bonanza Hong Kong test, the idea of basing a Super Rugby franchise in Buenos Aires and or allowing Argentinian players as well as greater volumes of Pacific Islanders to turn out for Australian, South African and New Zealand teams is for the greater good of the game.
"The best thing we could do to help Argentina and the Pacific Islands," says Nichol, "is build strong competitions in the Southern Hemisphere and allow them a presence.
"If they can get their players back in their own countries or playing in New Zealand, Australia, South Africa," he says, "then they will be able to field international teams in Sanzar competitions.
"And an expanded Tri Nations would add huge value, make the test programme the pinnacle of the calendar and would help to keep the players interested."
If all this sounds radical, it's not. Look at European football where players cross borders all the time. It's a simple case of adjusting mind sets, something which even the NZRU appears to be managing.
"We wouldn't want to see more players like Luke McAlister and Carl Hayman head to Europe," says NZRU professional rugby manager Neil Sorenson.
"It may be that we need to change our contracting models and we need to think about more radical tactics.
"It's one of our key challenges, retaining top players," said Sorenson, "and we are working with players and their representatives all the time to find out what kind of initiatives they would like to see."
Last year the NZRU offered Hayman a soft loan, believed to have been interest free, to help him buy a farm in Otago.
More initiatives of that nature will possibly be enough to persuade some players to stay in New Zealand but it is the dramatic vision pitched by Nichol that will help them win the long-term battle.
