KEY POINTS:
The Air NZ Cup rugby competition will feature 12 teams from next year, the New Zealand Rugby Union announced today.
However, the 12 teams to be invited to compete in next year's competition remained shrouded with the NZRU saying this would be revealed once the current 14 Air NZ Cup teams had been informed.
The Herald today suggested Tasman and either Manawatu or Northland were the unions most likely to be excluded from the competition next year.
Another major change outlined in the union's "draft final report" released today is that the competition will link with its Heartland second-tier competition through promotion and relegation.
Salary caps will be retained but at a lower level.
The NZRU board who ticked off the review in Auckland on Saturday said a salary cap would be retained because it was needed to encourage spread of talent and manage costs.
But it wants to reduce it, review its design and consider a limit on the number of players each provincial union can contract.
The 14 Air NZ Cup provincial unions, players and other rugby organisations were consulted in the review, with research and feedback from rugby supporters and commercial partners.
NZRU chief executive Steve Tew said the aim was to produce a better competition which would benefit all parties from players to fans to sponsors.
"The Air New Zealand Cup remains our premier domestic competition and we want to ensure it maintains its status as a true national championship that engenders provincial pride and rewards those players that perform in their club competitions.
"It is our belief that these changes and the management mechanisms will deliver on those aspirations and eliminate the sustainability issues that have challenged us with the current format."
Tew said a number of the changes offered new opportunities for both provincial rugby and for rugby at the community level.
It included a protected club rugby window, a proposal for a national club finals day, changes to the Ranfurly Shield to elevate and promote its status, and the promotion-relegation opportunity for the Heartland championship winner.
"Some of these ideas have been suggested or promoted previously and have been well supported in some of our research with rugby fans, so we are excited at the prospect of putting them into action.
"We are very committed to ensuring that club rugby has its own time and space as we see the regeneration of the base of the game as critical to our long term future."
The NZRU's review work has also included an assessment of provincial unions against the criteria for admission in the ANZ Cup.
Those findings will be communicated with the Air NZ Cup provincial unions on August 12 and an announcement on the teams invited to participate in the 2009 competition will be made after that.
According to the review, the Air NZ Cup will start in mid-August 2009.
The 12 teams will play a round robin over 11 weeks with each team playing five or six home and five or six away matches, before a two-week final series with semifinals and a final.
Further work will be carried out on whether a criteria assessment will be required for teams seeking promotion into the top tier.
A review of the Heartland competition will be done, taking account of the fact that additional teams will need to be accommodated.
Provincial unions have a final opportunity to provide feedback before the board ratifies its decisions at a meeting on September 25 and considers the implementation of the 2009 competition.
- NZPA, NZ HERALD STAFF
