Provinces urge pay cap to keep talent

New Zealand's struggling NPC first-division unions are again demanding a salary cap to spread player talent around, but rugby bosses remain opposed.

Rugby Southland chief executive Roger Clark yesterday vented his frustration at losing captain Corey Flynn, who on Tuesday announced that he would play for Canterbury next year.

Clark responded by promoting the salary cap, saying the NPC would not be around in 10 years under the present system.

Northland Rugby chief executive Peter Fergusson agreed, saying a handful of Super 12-contracted players wanted to play first-division rugby elsewhere but were being blocked by their unions.

Flynn, the New Zealand Colts and New Zealand Maori hooker this year, is the latest in a lengthening line of players attracted to the brighter lights of the five Super 12 base provinces.

Canterbury's squad this year includes more than 15 All Blacks - an extreme example of what alarms Clark.

"In the past the All Blacks have been strong when their best players are playing provincial rugby. At the moment the players are getting a message from the powers-that-be that you can sit on the bench at NPC level and still be selected in the All Blacks.

"That will be detrimental to New Zealand rugby down the track. We've got a system in place designed for the amateur game, and we're now professional and we need to address that."

Clark proposed a salary cap figure for all 10 first-division teams along the lines of those used in the National Rugby League in Australia and the major American sports.

It would be policed by the New Zealand Rugby Football Union, which employs the Super 12 contracted players.

"It has to be a figure which discourages unions like Canterbury and Auckland from hoarding the best players," Clark said.

"It's starting to catch up with us, and if we let it keep going what are we going to be like in 10 years? That's the scary thought.

"We won't have an NPC, which is the best rugby competition in the world."

Clark said the bottom five first-division unions lobbied for the salary cap several season ago, "but it fell on deaf ears". He said they would try again under the new NZRFU administration.

Fergusson proposed a draft system limiting 20 Super 12 players to each of the five franchise bases, with the rest being divided among the other five first-division unions.

"The number of players sitting around the countryside, maybe on the promise of making Super 12 teams ... They're playing second XV rugby and their livelihoods are at risk.

"A lot of these guys will be heading overseas."

Former Northland players James Arlidge, Ben Meyer (both with Auckland) and Dan Parkinson (Otago) were not now playing in the NPC while Blues No 8 Samiu Vahafolau could not make the Auckland side.

But the NZRFU and Players' Association quickly dismissed the idea of a salary cap or draft system.

NZRFU acting chief executive Steve Tew was not available for comment, but an NZRFU spokesman said the salary cap issue was dismissed this month after an in-depth review of the NPC. It was clear the leading players would refuse to accept the system.

The NZRFU had tried to help the five non-Super 12-based teams - Northland, North Harbour, Bay of Plenty, Taranaki and Southland - this year with a one-off payment of $110,000.

A minimum payout of $10,000 for every first-division player who was not a Super 12-contracted player was also introduced. Thus, if a squad of 26 had no Super 12 players, they would receive $260,000, while a squad with 24 Super 12 players would receive just $20,000.

Players' Association executive director Rob Nicol said increased restrictions on player movement would be hugely unpopular.

"The players would never agree to a draft system. You couldn't tell them where to play their rugby."

- NZPA