Wanganui on tenterhooks over future direction

Wanganui might be warming towards a place in a new division-one competition but is in no position to make a decision one way or the other.

That's because the New Zealand Rugby Union hasn't made a decision on where the national provincial championship is heading.

Wanganui Rugby Union chairman Dave Hoskin met the NZRU's Buck Anderson last Friday, but the meeting lacked enough detail for anyone to proceed.

"We didn't get down to specific figures and how much players can get paid," Hoskin said. "They are very keen for us to go up, but until they give us a yes or no, we're stuck. We're still keen to have a look at it but we haven't made a decision."

He said the NZRU had to go back to the players' collective for payment details.

And it was suggested the process would be jammed until the NZRU board makes its decision in December.

That's the one Manawatu is hanging on too, to see which four teams are culled from the premier division.

Wanganui have been promised $760,000 from the NZRU for each of the first two years in division one, to help pay players. But Hoskin asked if Wanganui would have the option of going down after two years if the venture didn't work out?

"It's the financial part that's worrying me," Hoskin said.

His board will have the final say and he plans to meet Wanganui club officials about it next Tuesday.

Hoskin said some senior coaches and players were keen to be promoted.

Previously, Wanganui had anticipated having to buy in almost a complete new team. But the NZRU men told them the teams coming down from the Air New Zealand Cup competition, like Manawatu, were not going to be stacked.

That's because their best players would have departed.

Speculation abounds: Like the possibility of a relegated Tasman splitting into Nelson and Marlborough, or the NZRU board delaying the whole process by 12 months.

- © Fairfax NZ News