Tasman Makos: News

Tasman CEO floats rugby Plan
04-Jun-2009

By WAYNE MARTIN - The Nelson Mail

Tasman Rugby Union chief executive Peter Barr is advocating a new domestic championship format that he believes would ensure meaningful competition for each of the country's current 14 premier unions.

Barr was responding to revelations from last week's workshop between provincial union bosses, the New Zealand Rugby Players' Association and the New Zealand Rugby Union that changes to the current 14-team Air New Zealand Cup format were likely in 2011 and possibly as early as next season, provided all parties were in agreement.

The key principles agreed at the workshop were the inclusion of Super rugby players, having a stand-alone window (which also recognises the windows for club rugby and Super rugby) and featuring a full round robin and playoffs.

The competitions must also have promotion-relegation, guarantee four or five home games per team, be completed within a 10-12 week window and be concluded by the end of October.

Barr's personal preference was for the current 14 unions to be split into a top-six premier division, with the remaining eight teams forming division one.

The top six would play each other home and away, followed by semifinals and a final, while the bottom eight round-robin competition would then split into top and bottom four, leading into semifinals and finals. Both competitions would take 12 weeks to complete.

"It would work," said Barr. "In my view, it would be incredibly exciting and tense because one team from the premier division is going to drop and one's going to go up. It's something I'm talking about and [Tasman] might put it as a proposal to the New Zealand Rugby Union.

"The only difficulty with it is there are going to be some unions who don't like that idea those that probably see themselves in a 10-team competition. There would be an argument coming from some that that sort of competition only has six teams at the highest level of the game and is that enough teams to then prepare players for Super rugby?

"Well, I'm saying if there's as much at stake as there would be in a competition like that, the rugby would be intense and played at a very high level in both divisions."

Barr said the Tasman board would discuss the idea and decide whether to make an official proposal to the NZRU.

He said that there was unanimity at the meeting that, if there was to be a format change, then all 14 unions had to be involved in meaningful competitions.

"One of the issues for [Tasman] last year when we were being relegated [was that] we were being relegated to something that wasn't meaningful.

"There's been speculation about a 10-team competition. Well, if there were 10 teams and there were four left, you can't build a four-team competition and make it meaningful. Obviously the New Zealand Rugby Union are going away to do some modelling of various formats."

Ad Feedback Barr believed the gap between premier and Heartland teams was widening and not an option for Tasman, who would be working hard, both administratively and in terms of on-field performance, to ensure they remained a viable and competitive union.

"We're in much better shape than we were this time last year financially and in terms of our relationship with our stakeholders. And if you take into consideration where we finished on the [championship] table last year, we believe we're worthy of playing at the highest level of the game.

"The Heartland unions have told us that they don't want their competition played around with and they're not particularly interested in elevation and most of the Heartland unions don't have the [required] population base anyway to build competitive teams."

He said it was critical that Tasman's supporters attended the home fixtures and that the team reproduced the form that saw them qualify for last season's playoffs.

"We're certainly in a much stronger financial position than we were. We're confident we can break even by the end of the year, that's the undertaking we gave the stakeholders and we gave an undertaking that we wouldn't call on our underwriters unless it was absolutely necessary and we're working towards that end."

At the union's annual meeting in Blenheim in April, chairman Nick Patterson reported a net deficit for the year of $1,966,247. He said the main reason for the loss was interest costs, depreciation and a loss on the sale of Blenheim's Lansdowne Park. However, Barr said the loss was effectively only on paper.

"It's a challenging time out there for everyone, not just the rugby unions. We're relying on the general public supporting us by turning up to our games; that's critical to us.

"We've been ahead of budget up until the end of April and we're on target for a break-even, but there are still some challenges ahead of us. We're confident of where we sit at the moment.

"I believe that going forward in the best interests of rugby in the top of the south, Tasman needs to stay together. We're now seeing some really positive things coming through in the talent area and this has come about through players realising there is a pathway to the top through Tasman and they don't have to go off to other regions."