RUGBY - Final countdown to save Taniwha

When the New Zealand Rugby Union decided to cut Northland from the Air NZ Cup next year 14,000 Taniwha supporters turned up to show their anger. Tomorrow just three Northland rugby voices will argue the Taniwha cause. Sports editor Tim Eves previews a critical meeting in Wellington
A TRIO of Northland Rugby Union officials will front up in Wellington tomorrow to try and save the Taniwha from being dumped from the professional rugby ranks.
At 3.30pm tomorrow NRU chairman Wayne Peters, deputy chair Andrew Golightly and chief executive Jim Smillie will try and stop an NZRU initiative to cut Northland from the Air NZ Cup next year.
It could easily become one of the most controversial hours witnessed at New Zealand Rugby Union headquarters.
A minutely researched verbal submission will be presented to the NZRU board in an hour-long submission window set aside for the NRU.
But after receiving an 18-page NZRU reply on Friday to their comprehensive written submission sent to Wellington two weeks ago, several more significant issues are now set to be hotly debated.
The NZRU reply landed in Whangarei just minutes before the end of the business week on Friday, and has upped the ante for tomorrow's D-Day meeting that will highlight Northland concerns.
Chief among them are what NRU board members believe are "subjective" assessment criteria that saw the NRU ranked as the worst run Air NZ Cup union with, according to their assessment system, a dysfunctional player-development programme.
So the pressure will be on Peters and Golightly, in particular, to try and convince the NZRU board members to vote in their favour.
Peters will speak about the impact on Maori rugby and the wider rugby community. Smillie will address financial concerns and Golightly is set to challenge the six "assessable criteria" used to rank Northland 13th of the 14 Air NZ Cup provinces.
"Pressure, just a little bit," Golightly said as the countdown to tomorrow's meeting heated up. "This is absolutely going to be one of the biggest hours for Northland rugby .... ever. There is now the feeling that a lot will hinge on this presentation because we don't know if we can sway the board members or not.
"From what we can decipher it will be a very close decision when the board gets to vote," he said.
Among the NRU arguments is that they are one of the only unions to have obeyed NZRU instructions not to contract players beyond 2008, a decision that is now being used to try and add weight to the recommendation to dump Northland next year.
While Northland has no players yet contracted for 2009, Southland has $1.4million worth of contracts extending beyond the end of this season and Manawatu more than $800,000 worth, a situation that has financial implications for the NZRU should they decide to keep Northland at the expense of another union.
But that is just one of myriad issues up for discussion tomorrow.
The NZRU will defend their review of the Air NZ Cup, an evaluation that all 14 provinces agreed to undergo in an effort to rein in burgeoning costs and rejuvenate interest in what was a flagship representative rugby competition.
Peters said he was confident they could present a strong case with a half-hour presentation, leaving another 30 minutes of their allotted 60-minute time in front of the NZRU board to field questions and debate specifics.
"Feedback we have been receiving has been very favourable. We are optimistic that we will get a good hearing, but we approach this well aware of the gravity of the decision the NZRU have, no matter what decision they make," Peters said.
A decision is expected from the NZRU board on Friday.