Rugby: Overseas temptations hold little NPC appeal

By CHRIS RATTUE

NPC sides are receiving a flood of offers to sign up overseas rugby players but for the moment, they are resisting.

Northland are among the sides who might secure a top-rated Australian for this year's campaign.

Former Australian test wing Mitch Hardy, from the Brumbies, is among the players being offered to New Zealand sides. Agents say they can also get South Africans.

Northland coach Bryce Woodward said unless his union could get New Zealand ers on loan, it was often cheaper to bring in an offshore player.

"To transfer a player within New Zealand there is a $30,000 fee before you even pay the player," said Woodward.

"We have an area of concern in one position and there is a small chance we will go for one of the players being offered.

"Our preference is to develop our own players, and talking to them after last season, they said one of the important things was for them to be given the chance to prove they can play in the NPC.

"I suppose it is a maturing of the professional era and a lot of players have agents now and those agents get pretty active.

"The Australians see it as a great opportunity to play in the NPC, and it looks good on their CV if they are going to Japan or wherever."

Northland looked at importing players last year, but in the end they secured Auckland backs Dan Parkinson and Patrick Petelo on loan. Parkinson has since gone to Otago while Petelo left, unhappy with his position with Northland.

North Harbour chief executive Doug Rollerson said he had been offered 10 footballers in recent weeks, including a couple of Super 12 quality.

He said coach Wayne Shelford was a strong supporter of giving locals their chance, but North Harbour have brought in South African lock Adri Geldenhuys and Marc Ellis from the Warriors in recent years.

North Harbour would give their club players the chance to show their ability in the club finals before making a final decision on whether to get an import, Rollerson said.

"I think we have got enough good players but then again we want to give Buck all the ammunition he needs for the NPC."

Counties Manukau, however, have decided against any imports. They tried to secure Brumbies prop Ben Darwin last year but were knocked back by the Australian Rugby Union.

Coach Andrew Talaimanu believes the high number of Australians on offer this year has come about because the Australian domestic schedule ends early due to the Olympics.

He said the players available were not clearly better than those in Counties Manukau, and the union wanted to develop from within their own ranks.

"You are never too sure if the agents know the lie of the land, especially the attitude of the Australian union," he said.

"If you have someone like an All Black or a top Super 12 player on offer, then you'd be mad not to go for it.

"But imports are of short-term use and we need to look at the long term."

And Auckland coach Wayne Pivac said his side had no intention of signing any imports this season.

"We've been getting the faxes and basically we just file them away," Pivac said.

"From time to time you need to do it, but we've got some great young players coming through and we want to encourage them."

NPC champions Auckland will play their warm-up match against Canterbury on Waiheke Island on August 1. The match will mark the opening of the Onetangi sports centre.