Rugby: High Noon approaches in Otago rugby

By D.J. CAMERON

Dunedin rugby folk went to bed last night wondering whether dawn would bring a Wild West-style gunslinging shootout on Princes Street.

One six-gun would be held by John Hornbrook, the beefy, bluff, no-nonsense Otago rugby chief executive.

The other by Laurie Mains, the former Otago (1983-91) and All Black (1992-95) selector-coach.

Both have indicated there is not enough room in Otago rugby for both of them.

Hornbrook and Mains have been at odds for years, perhaps as far back as their club careers, when Mains played fullback for Southern and Hornbrook took his hard-nosed lock forward play to the Zingari-Richmond club. Evidently there was some friction.

Christmas cards have NOT been exchanged.

When Mains returned to his native Dunedin, with only a Super 12 season with his Cats from Johannesburg to complete his two-year South African coaching stint, some people went to Momona airport to greet their rugby Messiah.

Otago had had a poor national championship. Kevin Gloag, one of nature's rugby gentleman, did not have the required magic powers. No wonder. He was from South Canterbury, north of the Waitaki River, which is the spiritual boundary of Otago rugby.

Gloag, a realist, realised his time was up, and resigned.

The pro-Mains forces gathered strength, led by a television commentator Steve Davie and a radio and rugby man, Paul Allison. Either or both seemed to aim for Hornbrook's chief executive position.

Mains' move gained strength when he formed a three-man coaching task force with Wayne Graham and Greg Cooper, two squeaky-clean local rugby heroes.

Mains' plan was that he would coach for two years, and then the Graham-Cooper team would take over.

Came the key discussions in Dunedin, conveniently when Hornbrook, a keen thoroughbred man, was in Christchurch for the trots.

Yesterday, Hornbrook and the Otago union powers had several heavy discussions.

Afterwards, Hornbrook said he had the support of the Otago rugby board. The Mains campaign, he said, was being run by outsiders.

Hornbrook was confident of his own position, with a four-year contract still to run. But the likelihood that Otago rugby was not big enough to contain the ambitions of both Mains and Hornbrook was still there.

Hornbrook said: "There is still the possibility that if one of us succeeds, then the other will go."