Rugby: Fan takes fight to NZRU

Bruce Lochore says he will turn his back on rugby if four provincial teams are dropped from the NPC next year. Photo / Herald on Sunday

A devout rugby fan has vowed to turn his back on the game for life if four provincial teams are dropped from the national competition - and has paid for an advertisement to tell the New Zealand Rugby Union.

Bruce Lochore has been a rugby fan for all of his 48 years - through the 1981 Springbok tour and successive World Cup defeats - but the NZRU plan to cut the NPC tournament from 14 to 10 teams next year has proved the final straw.

So incensed is Lochore that he placed a public notice in the New Zealand Herald on Friday as an open letter to the NZRU.

In it he detailed how he had kept the faith through challenging times, including patrolling the Palmerston North showgrounds to keep anti-Springbok tour protesters away in 1981.

But he ends with the pledge: "But I cannot and will not support NZ Rugby any longer if you remove those four teams from the NPC."

Lochore was just as firm yesterday, saying "if they go, I go".

Rumours circulate that Northland, Tasman, Manawatu and Counties will be the teams that are moved into a new second-tier contest next season.

"I just think they've got it so wrong," Lochore says. "I don't believe they truly support rugby if they follow this route."

The management consultant has even included his cellphone number at the end of the public notice so people can call or text him with support.

He has had about 30 messages so far, including some from rugby league fans suggesting he join their sport.

Lochore was born and bred in the Manawatu but moved to Auckland two years ago.

He jokes that he is one of the few people to attend Auckland Blues games, but sees big crowds in the provinces.

"Right now they're starting to pay rewards, not only in players but also in the gate takings," he says. "It's an asset that needs protecting and investing in."

Manawatu Rugby Union chair Tony Murphy says there has been a "revitalisation" in support for rugby in the region.

"We're probably one of those considered more likely to go down and that's stirring up emotions in people that will get louder and louder and louder."

Far North mayor Wayne Brown says the crowds are showing up in the countryside.

"That's where rugby is supported. They're not showing up in the cities because there are other things to do."

Brown suggests that the bigger centres such as Auckland should lose some of their teams.

Neil Sorensen, NZRU general manager of professional rugby, welcomes Lochore's "passion" for domestic rugby.

However, he says the new round-robin format with play-offs can only accommodate nine or 10 teams.

"We are not planning to rethink the decisions. This is what the provincial unions asked for and the challenge for us now is to create a meaningful second-tier competition."