Off the bench: Something's trickling down on the small unions

By CHRIS RATTUE

Here's a solution for the battlers in the NPC. Form a People's Bank.

There's at least one politician around who will help you out - Jim Anderton knows all the ins and outs, even though he appears to be in command of a very leaky boat at the moment.

Because at the moment, the Bay of Plentys and Southlands of this rugby world can't bank on the current bank.

They go bowing and scraping to get loan players from the superpowers, only for the loan to be called in the following week and perhaps even used against them. Nice system.

Our national rugby union seems to have taken a giant leaf out of the Roger Douglas rule book for life.

It pretends to operate a trickle-down system, but the overwhelming evidence suggests that when trickle-down is the intention, trickle-up is the result.

Rule No 1 in this new bank would be that all loans had a fixed term.

So when Otago lend Roy Hawker to Southland, he should stay there for the season.

When Jason Chandler and Dale Rasmussen from the champion Ponsonby club go to Bay of Plenty, they should be allowed to play every game.

This does not seem unreasonable.

When Southland get Hawker, or Bay of Plenty get Chandler and Rasmussen, they should do so with the freedom of knowing the players had the same status as every other member of the team. The smaller provinces should be allowed to form their squads knowing that some players would not be given the big hook.

And if the players themselves did not like this new loan system, they could either stay where they were or get a proper transfer.

Bay of Plenty went through all this last year with Eroni Clarke, when Auckland recalled their loan. Teams such as Southland and Bay of Plenty might have put their efforts into finding another player had they known that the likes of Clarke and Hawker would suddenly be wanted again in their home provinces.

And if the rules were clear, maybe the lenders would be more careful about whom they sent to the outposts in the first place.

Rule No 2 in this bank would be that all shareholders had a reasonably even crack at the funds.

You can't take this too far, to be fair. Looking after our Super 12 interests is vital. But should the poverty gap really be as big as it is at the moment?

This is stating the obvious, but the Super 12 bases such as Canterbury and Auckland are allowed to operate their NPC teams via Super 12 finance and influence.

While the system originally seemed to intend that players would return to their native NPC provinces, this just doesn't happen anymore.

If there were a true, Douglas-style free-market system operating, then you could argue that all was fair in love and war.

But New Zealand rugby is a centrally controlled deal, where Rupert Murdoch's money is being used out of head office to trample the little people. Surely the New Zealand union is there to wield a benevolent power for all.

It was quite remarkable to hear Southland rugby chief executive Roger Clark talk to a function at Pukekohe Stadium, just before his side and Counties Manukau battled out a draw in the second round of the NPC.

He sounded like a man at the end of his tether, completely frustrated by a system that was trickling down on him from a great height.

It probably says something for the way rugby is run in this country, that Southland seem to have a closer relationship with the Brumbies in Canberra than they do with their Highlanders mates in Dunedin.

That is not to say that the Super 12 bases are wrong in what they are doing.

They have been given a licence to pillage and they've got to keep looking for every advantage against the opposition superpowers.

But why the national union should condone this system is another matter completely.

Clark almost talked about Counties Manukau as being best mates rather than opponents, such is the feeling among non-Super 12 bases that they are getting a rough deal.

"If you asked the chief executives of the Taranaki, Northland, Bay of Plenty, and North Harbour unions they would give you the same story," he said.

The Steelers boss, Peter Dunne, then stood at the podium, and reckoned that had he been going to give a speech, he would have pinched Clark's notes.

But there is a ray of hope from coaches and players. In particular, Bay of Plenty's efforts in the first two rounds have been extraordinary.

The jump from second to first division is a difficult one, and a core of the Bay's best players departed after they won promotion. But Gordon Tietjens has cobbled together a side who have set about the business of retaining their first-division status with great resolve.

They have done so by ignoring the traditions of Bay of Plenty rugby, instead relying on grit rather than glamour.

Their first-round match was entirely forgettable, apart from the scoreline which saw them beat champions Wellington.

Saturday night's game against Auckland in Rotorua was a kickathon. But they have announced to everyone else that a point won against Bay of Plenty is a point deserved. This is no time for flamboyance - reality rules.

Bryce Woodward's Northland also continue to play above their weight, and of course Taranaki are always Taranaki.

Long may those teams continue to give the first division a shake, even though they never seem to get a fair shake themselves.