Feel sorry for Buckingham in all this. Mostly admire the work Edge and co do at Ole/Wests, but strongly disagree with their apparent stance on this standoff.
Sounds like NZF have offered them an alternative date for their Chatham Cup quarter final, but they have turned it down. If so piss poor.
Heraf is suspended, Bucks is an up and coming NZ coach. I don’t think he will be coaching a solely route one approach.
We all know that this isn't about the Chatham Cup. As I said previously in this thread, Declan has been very open about his view that age-grade tournaments are a waste of time and resources, so this shouldn't be surprising to anyone.
And if, judging by this thread, the main benefit of these tournaments is that occasionally some players get spotted and get professional trial opportunities out of that, then if Ole players can get those same opportunities (and also the scholarship ones in the US) through Ole (and we know that they can and do), what is the benefit of them being involved in these tournaments? And if the answer to that question is 'experience of lifetime/pinnacle of the career' for some of the players (as it undoubtedly would be), is that worth NZF spending hundreds of thousands on these tournaments?