KEY POINTS:
The spirit of the Taniwha will not be broken. That message is coming through strongly in the wake of the New Zealand Rugby Union's decision to kick Northland out of the Air New Zealand Cup next season.
Northland chairman Wayne Peters is combing the ground to find potential legal cracks to exploit and overturn the decision. There is certainly a strong emotional case to be mounted but the legal avenues might all prove to be blocked.
At a forum in March this year, the 14 provincial unions in the Air New Zealand Cup empowered the NZRU to make changes, including reducing the number of teams.
The NZRU are expected to argue that if a turkey votes for Christmas, he can't open his presents and then refuse to get in the oven.
That won't stop Peters and the union from fighting. And they will fight to the bitter end as removal from the top flight will kill the game in Northland.
"I worry now about rugby in the North," says Taniwha's veteran captain Justin Collins, who has played more than 100 games for the union.
"I want to coach my club. That's as far as my coaching ambition stretches. But once you chop the top off the tree, there can be no more growth and if Northland are kicked out, there will be nowhere for us to go," says Collins.
"We don't want to be in the Heartland Championship and if we do end up there, I think that's a hole we won't be able to climb out of."
The greatest source of frustration for Collins and his team-mates is that Northland are being removed having earned promotion in 1997, while Manawatu and Counties have survived the cut after being elevated by satisfying off-field criteria.
Since clawing their way into the top flight in 1997, Northland have delivered a mixed bag of results. They famously beat Auckland 44-43 at Eden Park in 2001 and have provided some fascinating players such as Rupeni Caucaunibuca, Fetu'u Vainikolo and Norm Berryman.
And while they finished last in 2003, 2004 and 2005, Northland finished with more points than both Manawatu and Counties in 2006 and were 10th last year - again ahead of two of the teams staying up in the Air New Zealand Cup.
"I was part of that team that won promotion in 1997," says Collins. "We worked bloody hard for that and have had to work bloody hard to stay up since.
"We have had a couple of good years and some not so good but what disappoints me is that we had to earn our promotion and battle to stay here while three of the four teams that are staying [in the elite division] were given a leg up.
"It would not worry me if the NZRU said the two bottom teams at the end of this season were going to be relegated." says Collins. "That would be the obvious way to do things and I cannot fathom why they are not doing that.
"If we take away the NPC team the kids up here won't see professional rugby other than on the TV so it is something they just won't comprehend. When there is a professional team in the province, that becomes something kids will strive for and the money and enthusiasm generated at the top filters down."
The sense of dismay in Northland is palpable. There is also a festering anger and resentment that a union which has provided so much has been treated this way.
But Collins says the frustration is being positively channelled; that while they have been robbed of hope and opportunity, there remains a fierce determination to make it as far as they can in the competition. "I don't think we will be lacking any motivation."
"I don't want this to sound rude," he says, "but most players are now pretty short-sighted which won't do us any harm.
"We [the Northland team] are pretty resilient - we won't worry too much about things that are out of their control. There is a professionalism that says we have a job to finish off, to keep giving our best.
"These guys know they still have a window of opportunity, that they need to keep playing well. One of our goals before the competition started was to make the quarter-finals and that remains our goal."
What happens to the bulk of the Northland squad at the end of the campaign depends on the effectiveness of the legal challenge.
If, as now seems likely, they can't wriggle out of the decision and are forced into the Heartland Championship, those players with ambition to play professionally will have no choice but to head somewhere else.
"If I was having my time again, knowing what I know, I think I would have to be thinking about playing somewhere else," says Collins. "If any of the young guys in the squad were to ask me what they should do now and if they said they had something on the table from someone else, I would have to advise them to take it.
"That rips my heart out."
