KEY POINTS:
The country's five major provincial rugby unions, increasingly angry over New Zealand union policies, are believed to have forced a crisis meeting in Wellington on Thursday in an attempt to introduce changes to the Air New Zealand Cup competition for next season.
As has been reported previously in
the Herald on Sunday, the Super 14 host unions are unanimous that the present 14-team premier competition is not financially viable and has reached a state where improvements are needed immediately, and not in 2009 as appears to be the intention of the NZRU, or at least its executive.
Pointing to "woeful" numbers at most ANZC games, the provinces are understood to have described attendances at playoff games as a disgrace for the premier provincial competition in the world. Only 14,000 were at Eden Park for the Auckland-Wellington final, compared with 32,000 for the 2006 final.
The provinces further point out that eight of the ANZC unions are expected to post a loss for 2007 and in some instances these were significant. They have told the NZRU the situation cannot be allowed to drift for another 12 months as the impact on unions will have "long-term consequences".
Thursday's showdown meeting appears to have arisen from the province's resentment of a letter from the NZRU operations manager, Steve Jelowitz, suggesting that it was the national body's view that the ANZC status quo should be maintained next year.
The letter confirmed the NZRU is determined to see out the three-year trial term it stipulated when the 14-team competition was proposed in 2005. The correspondence came when the provinces were already seething over chief executive-designate Steve Tew's earlier curt dismissal of their concerns.
Tew claimed that the provinces had a responsibility to make the 14-team format work, but the unions say they had the format foisted upon them at the last minute when the NZRU suddenly extended the new competition from 12 teams.
It is understood Jelowitz's letter brought a joint reply from the five unions strongly questioning any reluctance to contemplate immediate changes to a competition. The reply has been signed by Auckland chairman Ken Baguley and chief executive Andy Dalton, their Waikato equivalents, Michael Crawford and Graham Bowen, Wellington's Joe Pope and Greg Peters, Canterbury's David Rhodes and Hamish Riach and Otago's Ron Palenski and Richard Reid.
The provinces have told the NZRU that the suggestions for the 2008 ANZC cause them significant concerns and that they want a fundamental review of the competition before the end of 2007 to enable the implementation of improvements for the 2008 season. They think the present format and structure of the competition is unsustainable and any delay will have a long-term detrimental impact.
The growing provincial anger with the national union is almost unprecedented. And as was indicated in the Herald on Sunday a fortnight ago, it is bound to have a ripple-on effect at board levels and especially for any board member up for re-election. After all, it is the provinces on behalf of their clubs who own the NZRU, not the other way round.