KEY POINTS:
If all the restructuring and upheaval in New Zealand rugby is difficult for fans, it is 10 times harder for players.
It would be 10 times harder again if it were not for the fact the New Zealand Rugby Players Association has earned a seat at all the various discussions.
The only certainty is that the landscape will have been moulded with the players very much in mind which has never previously been the case.
Only five years ago the players had pariah status. The NZRPA was not given any input into the Super Rugby broadcast renegotiation in 2004 and the Competitions Review was published in 2003 without any players being asked their views.
The players were always the last to be considered - ranking below broadcasters, sponsors and supporters. Not now.
Pointedly, all the unions who submitted feedback on the NZRU's draft competitions report, stated their desire to work with the NZRPA in reaching solutions to the problems they saw.
Sanzar, too, have brought the players into all their discussions around Super 14 expansion and there is mutual respect.
Where once the NZRU did its best to ignore the NZRPA, now they are partners.
"It is always hard describing a relationship from one perspective,"says NZRPA boss Rob Nichol. "But I think we have matured from a group of players wanting to get inside the tent to the point where we are putting our hand up and saying we want to take some responsibility for decisions about the future of the game. If we get that right, then the welfare of our members will be looked after.
"I would describe our relationship with the NZRU to be at that level where they are saying they respect that and recognise that and that they are giving us the opportunity to do that."
This change is the result of the NZRPA adopting an attitude bordering on belligerence. Nichol and his team have refused to accept a place on the sidelines.
When the NZRPA was formed in 2001 administrators feared players would call the shots, as footballers in the UK and US baseball players did.
Those fears led to the NZRPA being largely excluded. Relations with the NZRU were further strained in 2003 when 11th hour negotiations about a World Cup bonus payment became terse.
New Zealand administrators were not used to being confronted. They were taken aback by the confidence of the younger generation and their expectations in the workplace.
But Nichol has broken the resistance by wearing out shoe leather. NZRPA has knocked on provincial doors, Super 14 doors and the NZRU's door, building relationships with key people.
Fears of a player takeover have been allayed and everyone realises all they wanted was a fairer deal and greater acknowledgement.
What everyone in New Zealand also realises is that without the players, the game would implode. Given the buying power of European clubs and the disjointed state of the season structure in the Southern Hemisphere, the threat of player loss is all too real.
The invitation for the NZRPA to be active in all the various reviews is confirmation the NZRU realise they need player buy-in for their new competitions.
"We have seen this coming for a while," says Nichol of the parlous place rugby in this country is now. "If we don't develop competitions that are New Zealand and Southern Hemisphere-owned that are going to retain our players then we are going to end up in the situation where our players grow up with the aspiration of playing in Europe or in a foreign market. "That would be really sad.
"We have a choice - we can either do nothing and end up like Argentina and the Pacific Islands or we can get together and become a bit bolder, a bit more visionary and look to produce competitions that are the best in the world.
"Competitions that produce the commercial revenues and attractiveness to retain the best players and coaches and deliver the development for the game. We don't say that with doomsday in mind as we are enthused by this crossroads because there are tremendous opportunities."
