RUGBY - North's Super 14 hopes

Flying Tongan wing Fetu Vainikolo was being touted as a candidate for an unexpected Super 14 boost when the five New Zealand franchises announced their squads for next year's professional rugby championship today.
Vainikolo is being lined up by the Highlanders in Dunedin after making an impression as a winger with game-breaking ability, a move that is being wholeheartedly backed by his Northland coaches Mark Anscombe and Bruce Robertson.
If he does make the cut it will be pay dirt after he decided to fend off approaches from the Tongan international coaches to accept a place in the team that played at the Rugby World Cup in France.
By keeping his national rugby passport clear, Vainikolo improved his chances of winning a Super 14 berth.
He might not be the only Northland player to get the nod today either.
Justin Collins seems assured of getting another extension to his career with the Blues in Auckland. Dan Bowden has already been poached by Otago with a Highlanders contract the carrot and prop Bronson Murray was apparently being considered by both the Blues and the Chiefs in Hamilton.
So barring some unexpected selection bombshells, Northland's Super 14 contribution will be at worst two and at best four players.
"Gus Collins is a dead set for the Blues and Bowden looks certain for the Highlanders but we hope to get Fetu (Vainikolo) down to the Highlanders and have been trying to push the merits of Bronson Murray," Anscombe said.
"We have tried to tell (Blues coach) David Nucifora that a tough Maori boy from the Far North is just what the Blues need to sort those gym bunnies out down in Auckland. I am not sure he was convinced though," he said.
But the final squad announcements were only revealed today after the annual "horse trading" negotiations between all five franchise coaches in Wellington yesterday.
Often fringe players can be the victims of the negotiation process as coaches try to juggle the need for a balanced squad against the merits of retaining players.
Each coach can protect up to 24 players in a theoretical match XV with seven reserves plus two others from within his own franchise borders.
The remaining four slots in the 28-man squad were decided at yesterday's meeting. Those protecting fewer than 24 enter the draft first to fill those gaps before finding the remaining four for each team.
It is a confusing system designed to ensure the best players in the country are contracted to play Super 14 rugby, but will be a critical selection meeting with a flood of experienced All Blacks and veteran Super 14 players all heading overseas. It doesn't help the chances for Northland players either with three first division provinces within the Blues boundaries.
It is even a process that leaves players in the dark. Many will have only learned their fate when contacted by coaches last night. The Blues announcement was at Sky City in Auckland this morning.