Wynne Gray: Early morning NZRU missive jumps the gun on Super mess

I did a double take hearing the radio bulletin. Was it April 1? Had I been hearing things?

No and no were the answers as I realised the New Zealand Rugby Union were dead serious.

They had apparently sent out a media release, at 4.31am, to flag a meeting of the top 14 provincial unions next week to discuss plans for the 2010 national championship.

This could not be the NZRU I had come to worship and adore. What was the notoriously cautious and plodding organisation doing, how could they possibly have thrown off the chains which usually shackled them, what had suddenly stirred them into this action?

Hours later it still did not make any sense. Or did it.

Maybe the NZRU had reached some agreement with their Australian and South African partners in Sanzar about the future of the Superfooty series so they could then take the next step and sort out the NPC.

Otherwise it seemed a case of the trailer ahead of the truck in trying to find a solution to the NPC woes before they had come to any decisions about the future of the Sanzar series.

NZRU chief executive Steve Tew and his Sanzar project manager Cameron Good are in Dublin, where they are supposed to be resolving the Super 14 impasse which has threatened to end the 15-year alliance.

The last we heard New Zealand and Australia were on the same page while the South Africans wanted to start the Super programme early in February so they could fit in all their test and Currie Cup footy during the season.

No dice, said the transtasman partners, who then revealed they were investigating the financial, broadcasting and sporting merits of a replacement Asia-Pacific series.

Then out of the slumbering darkness yesterday came the advice from the NZRU that they were holding this meeting to discuss all areas of an NPC in 2010 - teams, format, salary cap, costs, funding, World Cup interruptions - the whole gamut would be discussed.

Later on some quotes from Tew were also distributed, telling us that the current NPC could not be sustained and was a financial drain on the unions. It was time to devise a new series which would last longer than the current model.

Applause for that theory but surely it would be more prudent to sort out the Super issues bedevilling the sport before deciding on the next course of action.