Harbour points to bigger battle

By CHRIS RATTUE - CANTERBURY 65 NORTH HARBOUR 10

Harbour chief executive Doug Rollerson says smaller first division unions have a battle on their hands even convincing the national union there is a problem with the NPC.

Rollerson will try to get the New Zealand Rugby Football Union to introduce an NPC draft immediately after this year's competition.

Each first division union should be limited to about 17 Super 12 contracted players while the rest would go into a pool. Imported players would hopefully return to their original provinces, Rollerson said.

Canterbury wiped out a disappointing North Harbour by 65-10 in Saturday's Ranfurly Shield defence - another lesson in the great divide that is New Zealand rugby.

Rollerson said it was extremely difficult to match a union with Super 12 franchise influence and a team of internationals whose wages are footed by the national union.

"They've got a $4 million wage bill. Ours is barely $1 million.

"We're not whingeing ... We just want to make it a meaningful competition again."

Harbour coach Russell Jones said Canterbury's individual physical strength and technique in the tackled ball areas were keys to their success.

"Winning turnovers is the key and they don't need many players to do it," said Jones, the first-year coach who says he hasn't dwelt on the political aspects of the NPC set-up.

"It means they can have a lot of players standing out of those areas and they are never outnumbered.

"We've got a team of players who come back to us from various places before the NPC, and in some cases after the NPC starts.

"It would be nice to have a team for a much longer period than a nine-week campaign. When you play Canterbury, it's like playing an All Black side that's together for 12 months."

North Harbour squandered early chances, including when captain Troy Flavell could not control an inside pass with the line begging.

But once Canterbury got going, Justin Marshall and company brilliantly transferred the ball to the most dangerous areas and finished ruthlessly, with wing Joe Maddock scoring an NPC record-equalling five tries.

Harbour only showed some too-late spark, with Australian first five-eighths Tim Walsh leading.

Meanwhile, Rollerson wants radical changes to the NPC and will seek Northland, Bay of Plenty, Taranaki, and Southland support this week.

He said the transfer of Corey Flynn from Southland to Canterbury, who already have All Black hooker Mark Hammett, had galvanised those wanting to bring about changes because it showed the sort of unfair influence franchise bases had.

"Steve Tew [acting NZRFU chief executive] helped set things up at Canterbury and he knew the effects the Super 12 might have on the NPC. He wrote a memo about it in 1996.

"He keeps being quoted saying you just need your systems right but that's a crock of shit," said Rollerson.

"We need strong management from the top to make the NPC a really good competition again and unfortunately I don't think they believe there is a problem.

"I don't know what the new board thinks, but a review last year said there wasn't a problem and the board isn't going to know what's going on if the management thinks that way."

Rollerson said North Harbour had developed a good atmosphere and systems but had no chance of keeping and/or attracting top players the way Canterbury and other base unions could.

A recent NZRFU review of development systems conducted by Graham Mourie and Ross Cooper had given Harbour, Canterbury and Wellington top marks, he said. Yet Harbour had been unable to retain players like Willie Walker and Aisea Tuilevu.

* Jones said Flavell might remain the Harbour captain because Mark Robinson had missed a lot of training time due to concussion and a knee injury, which was again causing problems after Saturday's match.