The New Zealand Rugby board decided earlier this week the championship will stay as it was and there will be no changes until next year.
A proposal emerged late last year; the national union was looking at splitting the 14 unions into two polls, based on geographical lines.
The four South Island unions — Otago, Southland, Canterbury and Tasman — would be grouped in one pool, along with Wellington, Hawke’s Bay and Manawatu, while the other seven North Island unions would play in another pool.
There would have still been crossover matches and each team would still play 10 games.
In the end, the national union ran out of time to convince all the stakeholders, which include Sky Television and the players’ union, and have decided to stay with the status quo, which is a top level premiership and a bottom level championship. New Zealand Rugby was keen to make changes next year.
Otago and Southland are both in the championship. Hawke’s Bay won the championship last year and would go up to the premiership this season while North Harbour goes in the opposite direction.
Otago Rugby Football Union general manager Richard Kinley said whatever format was played, it did not make a big difference to Otago.
‘‘We end up playing most of the teams who would have been in our pool anyway,’’ he said.
‘‘The last four head coaches we have had here have always had that motto to be the best you have to be the best.’’
The biggest disadvantage with the current format was that a team could get on a hot run but could not go and win the top division, simply because it was playing in the championship.
But Kinley was happy with the way it had panned out — a draft draw had been done and Kinley said it was looking positive for Otago.
The season was set to start on August 6 and go through to the end of October.
One win for Otago and other South Island unions was to get costs equalised across all 14 teams.
Due to their isolation, Otago and Southland were forced to pay for expenses for all away games, and they add up.
All but a trip to Invercargill involves two nights of accommodation and other costs which add up to anywhere in the region of $15,000.
The national union pays for flights, but the union had to meet all the other costs.
Compare that with an union like Auckland, which can bus to many of its away games and not be lumbered with extra costs by coming home straight after the game.
Kinley said he had been pushing for a change to equalisation for many years and it had now been accepted by the national union. All teams would have to pay the same amount for costs associated with away games.
That should lead to saving for the South Island unions. Any costs saved would go into reducing the Otago union’s projected loss this year.
The Farah Palmer Cup would have the Otago Spirit in the premiership division. It was promoted to this division after winning the championship in 2019, but last year’s Farah Palmer Cup was shortened to a two-pool competition, run along geographical lines.
The Heartland Championship will be back in its usual format after being canned last year.
