He's got it right. Dead right. Veteran New Zealand sports caster Peter Williams in an article published in today's New Zealand Herald on Sunday has criticised the form of the Air New Zealand Cup (14 teams too many) and said that the four teams most in financial strife should take the bullet and leave. In our opinion it ends discussion on the matter.This is a quote from some of his article:
Has there really been a benefit to rugby in Nelson, Blenheim, Whangarei, Palmerston North and Pukekohe just because there's an (uncompetitive) first division team based there?
'The most successful format was that which ran from 1992 to 2005. There were three divisions. Each played a round robin, the top four teams from each went to the semifinals and the winners of those matches played the division grand finals. The best system was an even split of nine teams per division across the 27 provincial unions, which ended in 1998. The 11-week competition finished at Labour Weekend.
As we prepare to stumble into the fourth year of the expensive and top-heavy Air New Zealand Cup don't you yearn for something as straightforward as that? Restrict contracted players to the first division. Encourage the fiercely competitive play that was such a feature of the old second and third divisions.
The NZRU seems constantly scared of upsetting its constituent unions. It shouldn't. Sometimes looking backwards is a good way to learn the way forward.'
The full article from the Herald on Sunday can be located by clicking here.
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