Waikato hits out at NPC revamp

1.00pm

The New Zealand Rugby Union want to level the playing field in the NPC in the interests of a sustainable future for rugby.

But Waikato Rugby Union believe the salary cap and 12-team premier division, to be introduced by 2006 after details are worked out, will merely water down the competition and send more players off shore. And they blame the national body for helping inflate their wage bill to over $1 million.

NZRU chairman Jock Hobbs said the structure would be implemented over the next two years because rugby was in danger of dying outside a few main centres.

Hobbs said there was overwhelming support from provinces for the need for change.

The primary objective of the competitions review was to restrain the cost base for provinces so that there would be a fully sustainable future for them and to spread the player base more evenly.

Hobbs believed the concentration of the top players in the larger provinces was unhealthy and that despite the new restrictions those provinces would continue to invest in and develop players to stay competitive.

But Waikato union and chiefs franchise chief executive officer Gary Dawson said while they would work with the NZRU, they were disappointed most of the findings and recommendations from the November's review report had remained unchanged.

Dawson said the expansion of the top division from 10 teams to 12, including a five-team playoff, would saturate the rugby market, in conjunction with an expanded Super 12, and force fans to be choosier.

"We also think that even with a salary cap you are still going to get a wide divergence between say Auckland, Wellington, Canterbury, us and the rest," Dawson said.

While the NZRU believe the salary cap and 12-team competition will spread the talent and provide more opportunities for semi-professional players, Dawson said players did not move for money reasons alone and were more likely to go overseas than be forced to join uncompetitive and poorly run teams.

Dawson said the free market rewarded enterprising and switched on provinces as Bay of Plenty had recently proved, while the NZRU only had themselves to blame for spiralling wage bills among the first-division provinces.

"Two years ago they set a non-Super 12 player minimum payment level for the NPC first division of $10,000. We objected to that and told New Zealand it would have an inflationary impact on our salary bill and it has."

Not only had it directly increased the bill but also indirectly, with Super 12 players then seeking to re-establish relativity. As a result of that and pressure from players' agents to get salary increases for their clients to compensate for the lack of increase in the NZRU's Super 12 player payments, Waikato's salary bill had increased by nearly $300,000 in two years to just over $1 million.

There were some pleasing aspects for Dawson and the Waikato union in the final review report, including the availability of the All Blacks to play in the NPC in the interim and the backing off of restricting base unions' influence within Super 12 franchises.

- NZPA