Rugby Union 'out of touch'

Northland Rugby chairman Andrew Golightly. Photo / Northern Advocate

The New Zealand Rugby Union is "out of touch" with provincial unions, a Counties Manukau Rugby Football Union board member says.

Matthew Newman's union was looking at legal action while the NZRU looked to chop four teams from the premiere competition.

But today's announcement by the NZRU - to keep the 14 premiere team competition - has made the Counties Manukau union very happy.

"We can now nail down our coach, who did not want to be involved in a nebulous division two or one team. We can nail down our players for 2010 which means we can now concentrate on our on-field performance," Mr Newman said.

He said the NZRU thought a 10-6-10 format - which would have seen four unions relegated - was never agreed.

"There was absolutely agreement that change needed to occur but the nature of the change... there were a lot of assumptions being made by the NZRU that the 10-6-10 format would happily be adopted at a point in time. They were out of touch, very out of touch," Mr Newman said.

He said the announcement also means that the union will be able to fund school and club rugby at the grass-roots.

Northland Rugby union chairman Andrew Golightly said his union was pleased with the decision which will "enable Northland rugby to move forward".

He said the union was always going to "stand strong" and had huge support from sponsors and fans.

"We're grateful that the NZRU has listened and made a sensible decision for 2010," Golightly said.

He said the NZRU's decision hinged on their ability to create strong competition in the lower divisions.

"We understand their position but they've come back to: were they able to deliver on a second tier being meaningful? That was always going to be a big challenge," Golightly said.