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The New Zealand Rugby Union denies its obsession with winning the World Cup is partly to blame for damage to the national championship.
Administrators at several provincial unions believe a hangover from the dissatisfaction created by the NZRU's decision to remove top All Blacks from the Super 14 - and the subsequent failure of those All Blacks in France - damaged the national championship.
But incoming chief executive Steve Tew, who is to replace Chris Moller in January, said the NZRU hadn't taken its eye off the ball when it came to the domestic game.
"We would reject that," Tew said.
"People can rightly ask whether the reconditioning programme was the right or wrong decision. We stand by that decision.
"Ultimately we weren't able to achieve what we wanted to at the World Cup. What impact that had on the Air New Zealand Cup, we'll do some research to try to determine, but it won't be a straight-forward consideration.
"We can't ascertain very easily what impact a World Cup year has on people's views of domestic competitions."
Tew also warned the NZRU would not bail out provincial unions that had got into financial strife by overspending on players.
"We'll deal with every union on a case-by-case basis but we have got a history of not bailing unions out. These unions have to take accountability for their own performance.
"We have taken a very prudent approach to budgeting and costs and we have asked our unions to do the same."
Tew appeared to have little sympathy for the likes of Southland and Bay of Plenty, who have gone public over their financial difficulties.
"It is worth remembering that we invited applicants to this competition and part of the deal was that they were able to raise the money necessary to be a participant.
"We had 14 teams that told us they could meet those criteria. The responsibility is on them to do so and if they can't, then we'll have to deal with that as it happens."
