Basic flaws in structure of provincial showpiece

By LINDSAY KNIGHT

As the national provincial championship first division's round robin prepares to kick off, a question for the New Zealand Rugby Union appears to be growing ever larger.

That is, how credibility can be maintained in the competition if it continues to have a playing field which is far from level.

Even before the NPC starts, it seems safe to predict that at least three and probably all four semifinalists will come from the five unions who are the Super 12 hosts: Canterbury, Otago, Auckland, Wellington and Waikato.

If there is to be a change to that order, it may be that North Harbour, as they did last year, or Taranaki, as was the case in 1998 and 2000, will perform beyond themselves and gain the fourth spot.

And even now it appears the finalists will be the South Island superpowers, Canterbury and Otago. If that doesn't happen then, given the dominance each has in the All Black squad, serious questions will have to be asked of the All Blacks coaching squad.

In the past few seasons one of the few factors making the competition remotely even has been one of the NPC's weaknesses: the fact that almost invariably its first few rounds clash with the All Blacks international programme.

That, at least, has meant one or two early upsets. The dominance Auckland used to enjoy of All Black sides contributed to Taranaki's hat-trick of NPC wins between 1996-98, including the famous Ranfurly Shield upset.

And last year, the absence of All Blacks saw Wellington beaten by Bay of Plenty and an understrength Canterbury lost away to North Harbour at Albany.

To maintain interest in what essentially is a great competition those sort of upsets should happen in the latter stages of the round robin as well.

But what hope does any side, especially those with no All Blacks and few Super 12 players, have against a team such as Canterbury, who have All Blacks on the bench?

Who, for instance, will be the Canterbury No 8, Scott Robertson or Sam Broomhall? And how many regular starts will Daryl Gibson and Ben Blair get when the likes of Andrew Mehrtens, Aaron Mauger and, possibly, Leon MacDonald are also available?

Similarly, in Otago there will be an excess of props with Joe McDonnell, Carl Hoeft and Carl Hayman all in the one province and at halfback there is a choice of Byron Kelleher and Danny Lee, both in the top three or four in the country.

When Otago meet their Super 12 partners, Southland, an Otago team consisting almost completely of Highlanders will be pitted against a Southland side whose only Super 12 regular has been young Corey Flynn, the second-string hooker for the Crusaders.

The NZRFU has tried to tidy up some of the loose NPC regulations which last year led to the absurdity of James Arlidge appearing for Northland and then Auckland in the same weekend.

But more compelling measures are now needed so that the Super 12 host unions share their playing resources more equitably with not only first division unions, but those in the second division.

It does not seem to be achieving much for the national interest, or for the good of the NPC as a meaningful competition, if Canterbury not only has a complete team of All Blacks but also five first five-eighths capable of performing well at NPC level - Mehrtens, Mauger, the New Zealand Colts Daniel Carter and Cameron McIntyre and Charles Hore.

When that happens, there should be official directives for some of the players to be moved.