Editorial: Compelling case for real rugby

OPINION: The Rugby Union is up against some harsh commercial realities.

 To retain its top players it needs to generate revenue.

Test rugby makes money; a lot of money. The Super 14, soon to become the Super 15, provides employment for the country's top 150 players, and gives New Zealand a share of television broadcast fees in South Africa and Australia. The National Provincial Championship loses money.

But empty stands at NPC semifinals in Wellington and Christchurch last weekend should have told the mandarins at the NZRU something as they prepare to shorten the competition. The real passion for the NPC lies in the provinces where people will brave miserable weather to watch homegrown players take on the glamour boys from the big smoke.

In the big cities, the NPC plays third fiddle to test rugby and the Super 14. Fans can see a better, although not necessarily more entertaining, standard of rugby, at other times of the year. In Palmerston North, Invercargill and Whangarei the NPC is the big game in town.

For that reason the NZRU's decision to cut four teams from the competition – tipped to be Manawatu, Northland, Counties-Manukau and Tasman – is a backward step.

The affected provinces will lose, but so will the competition as a whole. In a season in which the All Blacks have disappointed and the Super 14 has settled into a defensive grind, the NPC has been a breath of fresh air. Provincial rivalries have been rekindled, and fans have begun identifying again with teams who represent geographical areas rather than areas of shared financial interest.

That breath of fresh air is reflected in a 50 per cent increase in television viewing numbers during the first 10 rounds of the competition and increased crowd numbers in Hawke's Bay, Southland and Otago. However, across the competition as a whole, paying spectator numbers were down almost 20 per cent by the end of the round-robin stage.

According to NZRU chief executive Steve Tew, provincial unions are on course to lose $2.7 million this year, taking total losses for the four years of the expanded competition to $10m. Losses on that scale are not sustainable.

But there have been enough signs of increased public interest during an economic downturn to suggest that the 14-team NPC deserves a reprieve to see if the gains made this season can be built upon. If that means tinkering with the rugby calendar, so be it.

Unlike the Super 14, which is expanding from a 16-week to a 24-week competition in the next three years, NPC sides are teams with which fans all over the country can identify. Everybody knows where Northland, Manawatu, Taranaki and Southland are. Few outside the Blues, Chiefs and Hurricanes franchises could name the unions they represent.

Add to that the growing number of fans who would rather watch fresh-faced kids chance their arms in the NPC than hardened professionals play low-risk rugby in the Super 14, and there is a compelling case for the NZRU rethinking its plans.

The provincial competition has breathed fresh life back into rugby. It should not be sawn off at the knees just as it is beginning to pay a dividend.

- © Fairfax NZ News