RUGBY - Trio into battle for the Taniwha

New Zealand Rugby Union life member, and former chairman, Richie Guy is helping put Northland rugby back on track as a member of a high-powered advisory panel.
The fight to keep the Taniwha in the top grade remains in the hands of chairman Wayne Peters though, as countdown to D-Day in Wellington on Thursday begins.
Guy, recently dumped NZRU board member Warwick Syers, and former Northland Rugby chairman Phil Halse have been co-opted to the Northland board as an advisory panel to help sort out administrative problems highlighted by the recent national competitions review.
It is all part of a programme to get Northland back on track at the home office, after financial blowouts hit the union last year and concerns about governance and administration were highlighted by the NZRU.
But it won't necessarily help Northland stave off enforced demotion when they front up at NZRU offices in Wellington on Thursday, to try and reverse a recommendation to dump Northland and Tasman from the Air NZ Cup next year.
A trio of NRU officials, Peters, deputy chair Andrew Golightly, and chief executive Jim Smillie will present a submission to the NZRU in Wellington. Golightly said the NRU would demonstrate significant administrative changes, and hoped the new advisory panel would prove their point and stay on to help guide the union in the future.
"In the NZRU draft relegation decision, the NZRU assert that the NRU has not performed satisfactorily in the areas of `governance and administration' and has scored the NRU accordingly. The NRU, in their submission, have challenged this assertion while recognising that there were issues relating to governance and administration in 2007, which were capable of improvement," Golightly said.
"To address those key areas the NRU has formed an advisory group of Richie, Warwick Syers and Phil Halse. This group will attend NRU board meetings on an as required basis, and will receive monthly financial reports as well as any other relevant information," he said.
By presenting a hard-hitting written submission two weeks ago, the NRU has made no secret of the fact that they plan to go in with all guns blazing on Thursday. Labelling the recommendation to cut the Taniwha as "flawed", they will now get to speak directly to the NZRU board.
Peters was confident of a fair hearing but would not be drawn on whether the submission would be successful.