Otago and the Highlanders will be \u201cconsolidated\u201d as part of New Zealand Rugby\u2019s cost-cutting measures.<\/p>\n
NZR announced on Thursday it wanted both Super Rugby and the NPC to stay intact following revelations the national union was forecast to lose $20 million a year.<\/p>\n
However, as previously tabled for discussion, it would\u00a0force unions and clubs in the five major cities to consolidate their operations.<\/p>\n
It means Otago, a union overseeing the community game as well as the NPC team, and the Highlanders, a mostly privately owned club, will be forced back into a relationship.<\/p>\n
The Otago union operated the Highlanders franchise for the first 14 years of the Super Rugby team\u2019s existence.<\/p>\n
Details will need to be thrashed out but it is likely jobs will be at stake as NZR looks for savings.<\/p>\n
NZR said the move to consolidation would \u201cdrive better community rugby, high performance and financial outcomes\u201d.<\/p>\n
The nine regional unions \u2014\u00a0including Southland, who will be wary of Otago benefiting from the closer relationship with the Highlanders \u2014\u00a0will have \u201cstronger relationships with their Super Rugby clubs, supported by strengthened pathway protections to ensure talented players can develop in their home regions and stay connected with their communities\u201d.<\/p>\n
NZR said it and\u00a0Rugby Australia would\u00a0work with\u00a0Super Rugby clubs and the respective players associations to \u201ctransform how Super Rugby Pacific engages fans, attracts investors and generates revenue\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re open to working on things like player movement, a competition-wide salary cap and centralising commercial assets across the key markets,\u201d\u00a0NZR chief executive Steve Lancaster said.<\/p>\n
The NPC will remain a 14-team provincial competition to connect\u00a0rugby to the regions and provide\u00a0pathways for players across the country.
Implementation of the changes is expected from 2028.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Otago and the Highlanders will be \u201cconsolidated\u201d as part of New Zealand Rugby\u2019s cost-cutting measures. NZR announced on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":644522,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-644521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=644521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644521\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/644522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=644521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=644521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=644521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}