Richard Loe: Field only place to sort competition

I am one of those people who think the new provincial rugby championship structure should be sorted out on the field.

Either take out the bottom four from this year or, as a lot of people have suggested, the bottom four from last year. That would mean Auckland would miss out and would start next year in Division One, along with North Harbour, Counties Manukau and Manawatu.

So what if it is a big union that has to take the slide? When I first started playing for Waikato, they were a second division side. That was the time, 1986, when Warren Gatland, Graeme Purvis and I began playing together and we beat North Harbour in the crucial play-off and went up to first division.

I think it's good that the NZRU are finally getting to grips with the need to reduce the number of teams - pretty much everyone agrees that 14 is too many. But I don't agree with the criteria they have sorted out to find the top 10 who will make up the Premier Division. Population, player development, player and referee numbers, financial performance - what the hell have they got to do with it?

Auckland's financial performance didn't do them any good last year. The provincial championship is not really professional rugby. Fair enough, you might assess the Super 14 franchises like that but we need something different in provincial rugby.

Look, for example, at the Waikato club final yesterday - between Fraser-Tech and Morrinsville Sports. Stirring stuff. It's the first time in Waikato history Morrinsville have made the final.

It was made even more stirring by the fact that their coach, Darrin Stevenson, died of a heart attack the morning after the team made the semifinals - and they were playing for him. Plus the fact that Darrin - with whom I used to play - was previously a Fraser-Tech man and you can see how that final was all about pride and passion.

That's the sort of pride and passion you want in players moving into their provincial side - and that's what people want to see when they watch provincial rugby; not who's got the best financial performance.

There's no doubt the NZRU are doing the right thing but I hope they don't miss an opportunity to ramp things up rather than retain the perception many people have that they are downgrading provincial rugby.

I feel sorry about what they have done to some unions. Poor old Counties Manukau, for example, are everybody's pick to get it where the chicken got the axe.

But it was the NZRU who insisted they move to Mt Smart because Pukekohe stadium was felt not to be up to it. I have played there many times and it's a bit of a mud hole but it was okay and even had All Black trials there when we used to play rugby in the daytime.

That is Counties' home venue and where they deserve to play. I watched one game at Mt Smart where the reserves for Counties and the other side were about half the crowd. People just didn't cross boundaries and Counties are paying for that now.

Some people say take the bottom four out this year but others suggest the big boys would beef up their sides to make sure they escaped the chop. So, overall, I like the idea of the bottom four from 2008 going into Division One.

Auckland would bounce right back up again but you get the impression the criteria have been organised to prevent such a thing happening.