Players went out and planted trees. If this competition was a tree it would be a Kauri. Once strong and mighty but, at the moment, under pressure from external and internal threats.
Clouds loom over the future of the Mitre 10 Cup and its relevance in the modern era of New Zealand rugby.
Workshops and committees have been formed and plenty of words talked about the competition and where it sits in the rugby landscape.
Super Rugby is now king, first XV games have a high profile and get decent media coverage while the provincial competition just rolls along.
Where does the Mitre 10 Cup come in when New Zealand rugby is discussed?
Between a rock and a hard place.
If anything, it has been a victim of the professional environment and overseas forces.
All Blacks play very sparingly in the competition and only to get match fitness. A worrying trend is players bypassing the competition to play in Japan or have surgery to be right for Super Rugby.
As the game gets more and more professional, players just do not want to sit and play in the Mitre 10 Cup. Overseas offers beckon and they are off to earn a decent wage.
New Zealand Rugby has to be congratulated on holding players to their contracts and playing in the domestic competition.
Luke Whitelock and Waisake Naholo will turn out for their provinces this season despite having overseas club contracts they could take up.
The calls to get the competition back to where it was in the 1990s are pointless. Things have moved on and Super Rugby attracts all the spectators and money.
In fact, history is a burden for the competition as people always hark back to the good old days.
So where to from here?
There is talk of making the Mitre 10 Cup an amateur competition - in which players are not paid. A higher level of club rugby in that case.
Players will just play for the love of the jersey.
Promising players can just be sourced into academies and move up the ladder or be discarded from there. The argument is that players are now hunted at school for Super Rugby so there is no real need for provincial. Perhaps.
But that has some real dangers. It may sound good in theory but in practice has plenty of fish hooks.
What about the late bloomers? How many thousand of players will simply pack up and leave? Are academies working well? Who will want to play club rugby when there is zero incentive to go to the next level? Will anyone play beyond the age of 25?
What may happen is the competition may be scaled back. Much will depend on the next broadcasting deal and the commitment of the national body to the competition.
We wait with bated breath.
Comments
Steve Tew saw the light and the writing. Rugby as our religion is being dismantled by new atheists.
Whilst super rugby is destroying the game at one level, clubs are disintegrating at their level. More are playing football now + basketball & hockey.
Super players have no allegiance to their locality ie. Who will the Barretts play for next? The average rugby head knows no difference between Otago & the Highlanders. In Chch, Canterbury supporters turn up in Crusaders gear & vice versa.
Clubs are closing/ merging/ struggling to field teams, as most are working on weekend now.
But the religion of rugger is finally coming home to roost as the sidelines are filled with drunk/ swearing. smokers - abusing all, in front of kids, on the sidelines. Attitudes at club level needs to change.
NZ rugby needs the equivalent of footballs Chatham Cup.
Some Unions are too strong whilst others are too weak. That is actually the threat to the Mitre10 Cup. Whilst Auckland destroyed rugby in the 80s, Canterbury is destroying rugby now. Football solved the same problem by establishing regional federations. It in fact has worked and grown the game. Rugby may need to follow.
Provincial rugby is still needed. Its far to big a gap between club rugby and Super rugger. The quality of Mitre 10 Cup games is still good enough to keep most fans happy. Hell last years final was higher quality than a lot of games from super rugby's cellar dwellers. And look at the positive reaction from Otago fans after the Shield was won.
More does need to be done to strengthen club rugby in NZ especially increasing numbers of school kids coming through to the clubs. How to do this is a tougher question. But hey lets give it our best shot, a good start would be for Otago rugby to start talking to the clubs and then asking for support from NZR where needed.