KEY POINTS:
The time is right for the New Zealand Rugby Union to scrap the hopeless Highlanders and plant a new Super 14 franchise in North Harbour.
How long is rugby going to put up with its ball and chain at the bottom of the South Island?
The Highlanders are taking up oxygen, blocking the chance to create a new club in a thriving economic area which is in or near the hub of the country's finest rugby talent.
No wonder New Zealand rugby is having trouble holding on to players when it clings to this sort of anachronism and almost goes out of its way to block private enterprise from playing its full part in backing the game.
Russell Gray's departure this week as chief executive of the Otago and Highlanders outfits came out of the blue, but I'm not surprised.
This is the man who delivered the most ridiculous line in the history of New Zealand rugby when he claimed the Highlanders would forge a great new future from homegrown talent.
These words were an ill-considered sop to the rugby heart, delivered by a brain not fully engaged.
Gray will leave the Highlanders in a poor state and in drastic need of the quality imports he decried.
It is impossible to agree with the suggestion by Otago chairman Ron Palenski that Gray has "enhanced" the role, and with Gray's claim that "the union has made considerable progress since my arrival".
The bottom line for a sports chief executive is the win-loss column for the team.
So where is this evidence of progress, chaps? John Hornbrook, the old chief executive who steered the Highlanders to pretty decent results, would eat Gray for breakfast.
Otago, more than anyone else in the top flight of New Zealand rugby, can ill-afford to rely solely on players bred from within the region.
Their best players are, like sheep, leaving in droves. Without their brilliant front row and a good few others, a team that has never won the competition and has finished eighth or ninth in the past four seasons will be dog tucker.
What to do about the Highlanders then? Exit stage left, I say, unless the Super 14 is to be expanded.
The New Zealand union should seize the chance to create a brilliant new cross-town rivalry in the Auckland region by shifting the southern franchise to North Harbour.
Instead of holding on to the past and stifling the game with a needless domestic salary cap and by propping up a hopeless case, the New Zealand union needs to release the shackles.
Dunedin is a terrific place. But compared to the rugby powerhouses it's a dead-beat town lacking a history of success - and the financial clout to battle the giants.
Giving North Harbour a franchise isn't a panacea. But it would be a step in the right direction, and an indication that the national union is responding to changing times. New Zealand rugby, with players leaving left, right and centre, needs to make every post a winner.
Where does it say that locations for the Super franchises should be written in stone?
In a nutshell, then, the Highlanders have failed despite their early promise - a promise which was built heavily on quality imports.
It's impossible to see them ever escaping from the cellar.
It's time for a bit of promotion-relegation if you like, to give another place - and one with enormous potential - its chance.
