KEY POINTS:
Throwaway line? A bit of mischief from departing Blues coach David Nucifora or a pointer to the future of the Super 14 series?
Nucifora, a boomerang after four years, is faced with the immediate difficulty of the Blues' playoff predicament rather than working on solutions for the eventual
shape of the competition. At least that would be the common perception.
But Nucifora will be absorbed into the Australian rugby system in some guise when he returns home and he is, like his current NZRU employer and future ARU boss, extremely concerned about the outlook for the Sanzar competitions.
His exit does not diminish his concern for the Blues and the future of professional rugby in the Southern Hemisphere.
"I do worry about it because [with] anything you have been a part of, you want to see long-term success - you want to see it continue," he said. "There are some things that are challenging with the number of players leaving New Zealand and from this team in particular."
Nucifora has the chilly trip to Carisbrook to contend with tomorrow before his side can contemplate a possible semifinal deciding last-round match against the Hurricanes.
But the wider state of the game worries him more.
"I think for long-term planning you need better control of the whole contracting system and the sooner the contracting system changes here where the franchises have control of that, then you are able to plan and build for the future a lot better and I think that is something if it is not being looked at already, I would be very surprised."
The method of player payments is one of the many issues the NZRU is grappling with as they canvass provinces, franchises and stakeholders about concepts for a new Super rugby series to start in 2010.
That rugby roadshow has been touting the idea of an expanded 18-team series with US-style conference systems in New Zealand, Australia and South Africa before the competition moved into an elongated finals format.
Private ownership of franchises and a revamp of the commercial and schedule model for the Southern Hemisphere is also central to the NZRU forums.
As part of those discussions, major provinces have declared they do not want to be financially hurt as they are now, by subsidising wages for Super 14 or test players who rarely play for their provinces.
But they have said they are prepared to underwrite salaries if they have more matches which a home-and-away conference system would generate.
The NZRU has been forced into overdrive because of the increased player exodus, dwindling spectator and television interest in the Super 14 and Tri-Nations and the compounding problems of the Air New Zealand Cup.
"It has all happened in a rush and the NZRU have been caught out," an official said. "But they have stepped up their game, they are working very hard on all these things and there is some speed needed."
