Wylies says NZRU proposal a disaster
04-Dec-2009
 
Wayne Martin - Nelson Mail
Former All Black coach Alex Wyllie believes the likes of Mid-Canterbury will "get slaughtered" if the New Zealand Rugby Union proposal to introduce a second tier to the NPC goes ahead.

The Mid-Canterbury union has announced it will accept the NZRU's invitation to be part of a new middle division to officially be called division one – but in reality division two – next year.

The NZRU has invited Wanganui, the winner of the Heartland Championship, and Mid-Canterbury, well-beaten by Wanganui in the final of the competition this season, to join four teams it plans to compulsorily demote from the 14-team Air New Zealand Cup.

The four provinces headed for the cut are believed to be Counties-Manukau, Northland, Manawatu and Tasman.

Wyllie – one of the most successful All Black coaches in history when he took the team from 1988-91 and who played 40 matches for the All Blacks – described the intended move of the NZRU as a potential "disaster".

"If they take Northland out, for example, rugby would just about disappear from the north," he said. "If they put Wanganui and Mid-Canterbury up, it is going to be bloody ridiculous.

"They will get slaughtered. It's unbelievable what they [the NZRU] have done. They were talking about dropping Southland a year or so back and look where they are now.

"To drop four teams would be like creeping cancer. The game in those areas would just die."


 

 

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