Now the unions have to put their minds to matters based more on fact than conjecture, says Dylan Cleaver.
This is the story of the mice that roared - now they have to start to think.
Northland, Counties Manukau, Tasman and Manawatu, the four unions with their necks under the NZRU's guillotine, have staved off execution with a formidable campaign that involved lobbying and explicit legal threats.
Unless they
want to find themselves in the same position a little further down the track, they now have to do more than rail against the national body.
"They were out of touch, very out of touch," said outgoing Counties Manukau chairman Matthew Newman of the NZRU. It is a strange charge to label against an organisation that, no matter how good a punching bag they make, has just shown that they are prepared to put pragmatism ahead of pride. These sort of comments help no one. The time for cheap shots is over.
Three of the four unions' arguments have been almost entirely emotive, playing on the argument that rugby will wither in their region without a representative team in the first division. (The exception being Northland who appeared to have a strong case for inclusion in 2010 based on correspondence they had received from the NZRU.) Now they have to put their minds to matters based more on fact than conjecture.
It is something recognised, at least, by Northland's Andrew Golightly. "Change has still be signalled and we have to work hard on determining what that will be. What we have is another year to prove we are sustainable." The unions have to get constructive, working alongside the NZRU and Players' Association in helping develop the framework for a competition that will be home to their flagship sides while leaving them in a financial position that will allow them to carry out their core function, which is the administering, fostering and developing amateur rugby within their region.
In recent weeks you could be forgiven for thinking these unions' only function was to provide the 22 players that wear their badge with television time. That's fair enough; you fight with the tools you have at your disposal.
But when a frustrated Steve Tew said "bring on the bucketheads" yesterday, it should be taken as not just a challenge to Manawatu's fans to come out in force, but for the union, and others, to show more than they have thus far.
