Board to tackle NPC rejection

By WYNNE GRAY

Grievances from the nation's provincial powerhouses about plans to revamp the NPC will go before the New Zealand Rugby Union today.

Five major unions - Auckland, Waikato, Wellington, Canterbury and Otago - have united to reject the controversial Competitions Review which was completed late last year.

The NZRFU expected the review to be accepted at last month's board meeting but they now face what looms as a protracted fight about the future shape of New Zealand rugby.

When the competition report was unveiled last November, chairman Jock Hobbs said: "New Zealand rugby needs to have the courage to make changes now." Major changes mooted in the review were:

* The All Blacks would play more tests and would be removed from the NPC.

* The NPC would be split into a 12-team "managed" professional premier grade with a salary cap to promote even contests and a second amateur competition of up to 15 teams.

The major unions objected, both independently and as a united force, to a number of proposals forcing the NZRFU to abandon plans to ratify the review last month..

Those criticisms are among 35 which will be assessed by the NZRFU board today while they continue to press ahead with plans to implement the review.

The major unions believe any changes, which are scheduled to happen in 2006, should not be contemplated until the NZRFU has sorted out its financial future which is tied to Sanzar's broadcasting deal with News Corp.

The Big Five ask how the NPC can be the best domestic competition in the world if the All Blacks are removed. They say sponsors will turn away and that a salary cap will discourage talent identification and development and encourage even more of a player drain.

They maintain that creating an even competition will only encourage mediocrity and argue that history shows provincial power hung on a few unions before professionalism.

Why change, they ask. They suggest the review favours more central control of rugby, a policy the major unions feel stunts innovation and downgrades the quality of rugby.

Among a raft of questions, the provinces ask whether the Rugby Union will also want to distribute All Blacks evenly across the Super 12 and whether the salary cap will drive young players overseas.

It is suggested that any reduction in the All Blacks' success may have more to do with NZRFU strategies than any weaknesses in the domestic competitions.

The Big Five asked the NZRFU for detailed financial projections and further analysis of the report.