Breakaway from NRU back on boil

A Far North rugby veteran is forging ahead with plans for a breakaway from the Northland Rugby Union and to set up a new team in the third division.
The NRU, however, says the Far North is part of Northland rugby and its history, and the plan is doomed to fail.
Mate Radich - a rugby writer for the Kaitaia-based Northland Age, former Mangonui Sub-union chairman, 15-year veteran of the NRU board and current member of the Far North District Council - floated the idea in a newspaper column late last year.
Last week in an impassioned speech to a council meeting he lamented the state of club rugby in the Far North and announced his plans for a roadshow visiting crucial Bay of Islands clubs.
NRU operations manager Greg Shipton said it was unfortunate Mr Radich was still pursuing his plans, which did not have the backing of the NRU. Mangonui and other sub-unions, he said, were part of Northland and its history.
Six years ago Mr Radich won the backing of Mangonui and Hokianga sub-unions to secede, but the Far North's third sub-union, Bay of Islands, wasn't having a bar of it. This time he plans to visit each Bay of Islands club to hear their views, and hopes members will back him.
He said Far North rugby was in "dire straits". "Kaikohe is struggling. Hokianga used to have seven teams, now they have two. Aupouri has gone, Waipapa has defaulted - all because there is no incentive for our players.
"The NRU is in financial strife because they're buying in players so they can stay in the professional first division, but that's backfired. Now Northland players are going elsewhere to play in the second."
Mr Radich said club memberships were dropping because players saw no chance of progressing. Half the Northland side came from outside Northland, and with the development squad and under-20 team axed, there was no pathway for young players keen to play for their province.
A Far North side would do well in the third division and act as a feeder for Northland, he said. Matches could be held around the district and would pull big crowds wanting to see their local heroes play.
Mr Radich said he had received a lot of support in Kaitaia six years ago, but the Bay of Islands sub-union wouldn't even let him into their meetings. "They were absolutely negative and I was told to go away."