KEY POINTS:
A union with no future takes on one looking with misty eyes to the past when Tasman travel to Hamilton to take on Waikato tonight.
With Marlborough wanting out of their one-sided alliance with Nelson Bays, Tasman are raging hot favourites to be one of the two teams culled from the top division when plans for next year's Air New Zealand Cup are finalised on Tuesday.
In fact, Tasman are only still able to function this season thanks to a New Zealand Rugby Union financial rescue package. The terminal top of the south joint venture even tried to pull out of a pre-season game with Counties Manukau because it couldn't afford the air fares for its players.
In the end, Counties stumped up the cash and the match went ahead, but the incident said plenty about the state of the Makos.
Champions just two seasons ago, Waikato aren't exactly in great shape either.
Finances might not be a problem but the overseas player drain certainly is.
A team that used to toss up between Byron Kelleher and Brendon Leonard at halfback now chooses between David Bason and Josh Sutherland.
Leonard may be trying to recover from a chronic knee injury but many others have either gone overseas or retired.
The loss of the likes of Jono Gibbes, Marty Holah and Stephen Bates, and the promotion to the All Blacks of Richard Kahui alongside Sitiveni Sivivatu and Mils Muliaina has left the cupboard looking bare.
NRZU chief executive Steve Tew said this week that the post World Cup exodus of so many players seemed to have levelled the playing field in the national championship. Nowhere did that seem more evident than in Waikato's first up loss to Northland. That said, the Mooloo men should have more than enough resources to see off the dying Makos.
Prop Craig West returns to the side after spending four months recovering from a pelvic injury. West's inclusion is one of only two changes to the Waikato starting line-up from last week. The other change sees Bason get the nod ahead of Sutherland at halfback.
Manawatu, another union under threat despite last week's rousing victory over Canterbury, host Southland in tonight's other match.
