This whole conversation is a beat up of the small unions. No one wins. The only reason the Air NZ Cup hasn't worked is because its not a fair competition.

Long term, no union outside the Super 14 franchises can compete when the Rugby Union manages the contracts and the money but lets the big boys have it all their own way .

Last year the NZRFU f&%$ed up all the competitions. I wonder how much money they lost on the world cup - does that mean they are are not going next time?  They just need to makes changes to the Air NZ Cup to make it work.

There are some big decisions but I can't believe that the jewel in the crown of NZ Rugby ( the national provincial rugby competition ) will continue to be downgraded. They weaken our national rugby infrastructure at their peril. Their are lots of options:

- bring back competition by redistributing players paid for by our sky monthly fee's
- back to back the S14 contracts with Air NZ Cup contracts
- encourage non s14 Air NZ Cup players to play overseas's in the offseason & even buy a European team
- require players to play a full Air NZ Cup rugby before being selected for a s14 season. Get youth players off the Canterbury and Auckland benches.
- don't allow teams like Otago to build their provincial sides through S14 selection
- don't f$%&! up the competition in a world cup year

This publishing of snippets of a paper to the big city lap dog media is a standard softening up tactic to test the waters. We shouldn't take this rubbish. NZ rugby will be best served by a provincial rugby system that gives the fan's a local team to support and promotes the maximum number of players. It doesn't have to be fully professional and it can be made to work.

The who goes conversation should be kicked into touch, and the non S14 unions should stick together and challenge the NZRFU on a legal basis because 11 teams could be come 8 very quickly