News Justin: More than Collins heading north

Auckland will this week bring their bulging wage bill under the $2m salary cap by announcing a number of loan deals. While the union must make reasonably significant savings - sources estimate they are almost $500,000 over the cap - it is thought unlikely that Auckland will follow Canterbury's lead and release a high-earning All Black.

Instead, the Herald on Sunday understands that incumbent captain Justin Collins will be loaned to Northland and joined there by at least one senior player - possibly the recovering Derren Witcombe - and some younger emerging talent.

Northland had been hoping to secure Sam Tuitupou and Brad Mika as well as Collins and an announcement will be made in Whangarei early this week.

It is not known whether any Aucklanders will be offered to North Harbour but coach Allan Pollock said he has not expressed a desire to house anyone not required by Auckland.

"Do we need any players from Auckland? The answer to that would have to be no," said Pollock. "We don't know what players they are putting up and those choices are Auckland's, not mine. But if they are having issues with the salary cap, then it makes sense for players to be kept within the Blues franchise."

Auckland have been forced to move some players to avoid breaching the salary cap that will be imposed in the Air New Zealand Cup. They are only allowed to spend a total of $2m on player wages but, after re-signing 16 players last year as well as bringing Troy Flavell and Andrew Blowers back from Japan, it is understood their costs went about $300,000 over the limit.

Their problems have been exacerbated by having to use extra players to cover for the likely absences of Flavell, Jerome Kaino, Ali Williams, Keven Mealamu, Doug Howlett and Joe Rokocoko, who will be on All Black duty.

Rather than see players lost to the Blues franchise, executives from Auckland, Northland and North Harbour have met in recent weeks to discuss ground rules for loaning players. All three unions have agreed in principle to accommodate each other's players where possible.

Collins has been angling for a move back to Northland for some time now and will next year rejoin the province he has represented more than 70 times. The decision to loan him out this season, however, depends on whether Auckland coach Pat Lam feels he has adequate cover.

Flavell and Kaino are almost certain to miss the bulk of the competition and Angus MacDonald is not expected to be fit until the playoffs. That would leave Lam with Daniel Braid, Kurtis Haiu, Bradley Mika, Onosai Tololima-Auva'a and Blowers in the mix.

But with Bryce Williams and Cameron Jowitt having both opted to stay in Europe, Mika and Haiu might have to be used at lock, stretching Lam's resources and making it unlikely that Mika will be one of the senior players offloaded.

Northland have said they would be keen to pick up any outside back with genuine strike power and as Auckland have real depth there, 21-year-old James Somerset could be released for the season.

Earlier last week, Canterbury transferred Chris Jack to Tasman, partly because the player was keen for a fresh challenge and partly because it took a major load off the wage bill.

The deal made sense for Canterbury as Jack, due to his All Black commitments, is only likely to play between two and four games this year and none next year.

Auckland could have gone down a similar road with one of their All Blacks but neither Northland nor North Harbour felt they would benefit much from such a deal. Northland's coach Mark Anscombe said: "An All Black wouldn't be much good to us right now."