Save-our-teams activist left with mixed message

Mixed messages emanated from the New Zealand Rugby Union when Dave Kirk-Jones from the saveourteams.co.nz website met Neil Sorensen in Wellington last Friday.

Kirk-Jones said, while handing over the 35,000-signature petition to the NZRU general manager professional rugby, that on the one hand Sorensen told him the chopping of four premier teams was a done deal.

On the other hand, Kirk-Jones was told there were still issues for the NZRU to settle with Sky Television and the powerful Rugby Players Association.

"Their big issue is with the players' salaries and Sky apparently are playing hardball," Kirk-Jones said.

If the 14 teams are retained, midweek games will be necessary and the players' association might want compensation for them.

Players' Association chief executive Rob Nichol is overseas and could not be contacted. But his organisation is understood to now be opposed to slashing the four teams from the Air New Zealand Cup.

Kirk-Jones said he was told Sky wants to broadcast only five of the seven games and that if the NZRU wants to carry on with all seven, the NZRU will have to pay more money for them.

He was also told the NZRU was no closer to a deal for TV coverage of the middle division-one competition.

The impression Kirk-Jones derived was that all the change had come from pressure from the Australians to have the Super 15 expanded, constricting the New Zealand domestic match window.

- © Fairfax NZ News