RUGBY - Today's report may put North status at risk

Northland rugby officials are sweating on a report from national headquarters due today that could determine the future of the union as a premier rugby province.
Union administrators nationwide will learn just how tough the wrestle will be to survive in a reformatted premier provincial competition when a draft report from national headquarters arrives.
But it will come amid conflicting reports about the future of the game at provincial level and confusion about just when key decisions will be announced.
Northland Rugby Union (NRU) chairman Wayne Peters was expecting the draft report from the New Zealand Rugby Union (NZRU) today, which will outline how many teams will be involved in a new provincial championship, but not who have met their approval to be included.
The handful of unions sweating on the decision from Wellington will have to wait until next week to see if they have found favour with the national board. That is when the NZRU will rank all the provincial unions in order of preference.
Depending on the format, that will either give Northland new life in the top grade or cast the NRU to the depths of Heartland (third division) rugby.
It is looming as a close race for Northland, who have suddenly found themselves under the microscope with unsubstantiated reports that they will join Tasman as one of two teams to be axed from the first division ranks.
Bay of Plenty, Manawatu and Counties-Manukau are also in the gun.
That has fired up Peters, who is adamant Northland needs to stay no matter what format the NZRU opts for, but only if the Northland business community show support for the union.
"The number of teams in the championship is not the issue facing rugby in New Zealand, the single biggest issue facing the unions is the cost of the players.
"If we don't address that issue then nobody will survive, certainly not the smaller provincial unions who don't have the financial luxury of a Super 14 base to call on," Peters said.
"There is no union I have spoken to that does not want to be part of the Air NZ Cup provincial competition in the future. They all want to be there," he said.
"What needs to happen in Northland is for the community as a whole to decide if they want their team to participate at the premier level and if we are collectively prepared to pool our resources to make sure that happens. If the business community and the public does not back the union then - quite simply - we won't be there."
NZRU spokesman Neil Sorenson played down reports that several provincial unions were poised to rebel against the existing Super 14 and Air NZ Cup formats and were trying to set up a transtasman competition instead.
The NZRU were poised to announce the new provincial format, having gone through an exhaustive review, Sorenson said.
There would be avenues for unions to express their opinions before the decision in September.
"There is nothing dead in the water at the moment because reviews are taking place over the next 12 months and we are happy for all options to be included, happy for any suggestions to come forward from any people whether it is players, sponsors, provincial unions or franchises," he said.
The discussion document on the revamp of the Air NZ Cup was released three to four weeks ago and the inclusion of Australian teams was not part of the review.
"And we have had no feedback from partners and stake holders to suggest we should revisit that position."
The group, reported to include North Harbour, Wellington, Canterbury, Auckland, Waikato, Otago, Hawke's Bay, Taranaki and Southland, want the introduction of a 14-team transtasman trophy home-and-away competition involving nine New Zealand teams and five from Australia.
This would mean doing away with New Zealand's premier domestic competition, the Air NZ Cup.
They also want a European-style tournament to run alongside the transtasman trophy.
This would involve teams from New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Japan, the Pacific Islands and America.