http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/opinion/3578724/Time-to-remake-the-hapless-HighlandersI read that blog by Marc Hinton on Stuff today along with the comments from other readers, and it made me sad. All the comments saying move the franchise to Southland, or Hawkes Bay, makes me wonder if the rugby watching public understands why the Highlanders cannot improve under the current franchise system.
The way the NZ franchises are set up, doesnt create a level playing field. This is as good as the Highlanders can put on the field at the moment, and thats unlikely to change for awhile with the current set up. For the Highlanders to improve they need Otago and Southland to go recruit players, and pay for them out of thier own pockets.
Otago is broke, the low crowds, the upkeep of Carisbrook, and very irregular All Black tests, they are losing money hand over fist and Southland is propped up by the liquor licensing trust's cash. They cannot go out and buy world class players, they have to rely on developing talent from a very small player pool. Gone are the days where promising players turn up at Otago Uni doing PE degree's, anyone who shows talent at age group level seems to have a Lincon scholarship thrown at them by Canterbury.
With the current franchise system, the Highlanders have first pick from a woefull Otago side, and solid Southland side, both sides not exactly full to the brim of All Blacks, and rely on the other franchises' leftovers in the draft to unearth talent and to build something from them. Thats not exactly a recipe for a title winning side.
Thats why the current system isnt fair, the Crusaders get to pick from a Canterbury side full of All Blacks, so they do well. Yet if you look at how much the Crusaders players get paid from the NZRFU with their contracts, and compare that to the Highlanders, it wouldn't be close. Its not really surprising why they are at different ends of the table is it?
The sooner the NZRFU overhauls the current system, and creates a level playing field for the franchises, the better. They need to allow the franchises to contract their own players, create a salary cap and provide funds to the franchises to be able to afford the full salary cap amount. And rather than the current draft system, have a proper draft, similar to US sports, the lowest ranked team gets first pick of the players who havent been contracted before at the end of the domestic season.
If that did happen, it would level the playing field for the NZ franchises in my eyes. And yes i know this is a long rant, but had to put it somewhere, and no one really seems to listen in the stuff comments.
