Rugby: NZRU steps in to save Highlanders

The NZRU is to underwrite the financially troubled Highlanders for two years. Photo / Getty Images

Highlanders' chairman Stuart McLauchlan was defiant yesterday when asked to comment on his own future and the performance of a board that has essentially been taken over by the New Zealand Rugby Union.

The NZRU has prepared a rescue package for the financially troubled Highlanders, agreeing to underwrite the franchise for the next two years.

It has also shaken up the structure of the board, creating a spot for a Dunedin City Council director and reducing the number of provincial directors from four to three, but McLauchlan said that did not mean his board had failed.

"No, I don't believe we have. I think we've been very responsible," McLauchlan told the Otago Daily Times from New York. "We've kept the NZRU informed and we've been transparent about what we've been doing."

Asked if he expected to remain as chairman once the transitional board was in place, McLauchlan replied: "Yes, I do.

The NZRU has given itself the option to appoint a new Highlanders chairman, and McLauchlan said the national body deserved that right because of the support it was giving the franchise.

He believed other New Zealand franchises had lost money but the Highlanders had been particularly affected because of their small catchment area and plummeting crowds.

"We've been struggling over the last two or three years, mainly because we're the smallest franchise.

"Crowds have fallen off, and that's the main driver of income. We wanted to secure the future of the Highlanders through to the construction of the new stadium. I believe we've done that with this arrangement."

The Highlanders board was already looking for two new members, with Carisbrook Stadium Trust boss Malcolm Farry stepping down as an independent and Steve Thompson relinquishing his Highlanders and Otago positions.

The new board will be asked by the NZRU to adopt a "recovery plan" and look at the management of the franchise.

That raises the possibility of the Otago Rugby Football Union, which handles the day-to-day affairs of the Highlanders, being squeezed out, though McLauchlan declined to blame the struggling union for the professional franchise's woes.

"I suppose rugby in general is to blame. It doesn't matter whether it's Otago or Southland or Auckland. Everybody has experienced a substantial downturn in attendances.

"We're a smaller city, so we felt it first. We predicted others would eventually feel it and they have."

McLauchlan is adamant the Highlanders are going nowhere and maintains the NZRU is ignoring the occasional call for the franchise to be relocated.

More than anything, the Highlanders need success on the field to bring back the fans.

They have had some assistance through the draft but NZRU chief executive Steve Tew said there were not many other options available.

He said the Highlanders were the only franchise getting special assistance because they were a special case.

- OTAGO DAILY TIMES