Salary cap isn't in hand for NPC players

Establishing an effective salary cap to distribute playing talent throughout the country is key to the 14-team NPC format being a success.

That appears to be the conclusion drawn by all 14 unions who will play in next year's NPC Premier Division, with everyone agreeing that some fraught negotiations lie ahead.

The big five unions - Auckland, Waikato, Wellington, Canterbury and Otago - are concerned the New Zealand Rugby Union will set the cap too low in their efforts to disperse players across the country.

They fear that will lead to players (whom they can't afford to keep as a consequence of the cap) heading overseas rather than trying to find a contract elsewhere in New Zealand.

Auckland chairman Ken Baguley said: "We see ourselves and the likes of Canterbury as trying to keep players in the New Zealand market. We have concerns that if the cap is too low, players will look overseas. We don't feel we are in competition with the other provinces for our players, we feel we are in competition with the Japanese and European clubs."

Yet, the big five also accept that if there is to be genuine competition, resources need to be spread more evenly across the country.

The four current second division unions - Hawke's Bay, Tasman, Manawatu and Counties-Manakau - all acknowledge they will probably struggle to be competitive in the early years.

They refute, though, the big five's claim there are not enough quality players in New Zealand to be spread across 14 teams.

In recent years the top sides such as Canterbury and Auckland have had an embarrassment of riches which has led to a number of big-name players spending a lot of time on the bench.

The smaller unions believe their competitiveness could be greatly enhanced if some of those players were forced onto the open market by the application of a salary cap.

The challenge for the NZRU, then, is to put in place an innovative salary cap that doesn't decimate the larger unions but does prevent them from hoarding quality players.

There also needs to be a mechanism in place that allows unions to contract All Blacks without being unfairly penalised.

With the Tri Nations overlapping the NPC, All Blacks will only be available for the latter stages, which means a side such as Canterbury would have to run with a much larger squad to cover the absence of test stars.

If no dispensation is offered for producing All Blacks, unions will have to give serious thought to ditching test players from their books. It's a scenario Northland chairman Shayne Heap is sure no one wants to see.

He said: "What hasn't been taken into account is the All Blacks. If they are not available until the latter part, what dispensations are going to be given? They are part of your package but if you still have them, you will have to bring in alternate players into your squad.

"If there is no dispensation made for those unions, we will have chaos again.

"I would like to think that teams won't be able to hoard players. There is no easy answer.

"That is what the NZRU is trying to do. If they could release half a dozen players from each of the major unions that is going to enhance the competition greatly because it is then going to put some class into some of the other unions."

Complicating the picture further are the ongoing negotiations with the player collective. The Players' Association is wary of the cap, fearing it could drive down wages.

With so many opposing agendas to be catered for, the only certainty is that during the next few months more than a few tempers will be tested round the NZRU board table.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY