Rugby: Promotion may not be all it's cracked up to be

Danny Lee

Once you gain promotion to the Premiership of the ITM Cup from the Championship the grass becomes greener?

Right? Wrong, if you ask Hawke's Bay Magpies assistant coach Danny Lee.

With one more sleep before arm wrestling the Wellington Lions for the right to regain top-tier status in the country's semi-professional National Provincial Championship, Lee reckons the current two-tier competition isn't everything it's made out to be.

While not wanting to plunge head first into the "pretty political" pool, the former All Blacks halfback says it's time to revisit the template that smaller unions have been brainstorming with the New Zealand Rugby Union (NZRU).

"I know, for a fact, they've been debating it with New Zealand Rugby for a few years."

Let it be known that Lee doesn't have a silver bullet to find an alternative format but is adamant this one "doesn't make sense" and "there's a better way of doing it".

What rankles with him is that if the Magpies can beat Premiership sides then why have demarcation?

"We should all be playing in one competition because it's a national competition."

The two-tier cup started in 2006 as the Air NZ Cup, before evolving to the ITM Cup in 2010 with four crossover games and the promise of promotion.