The national B competition has been scrapped, a casualty of the national union's belt tightening.
New Zealand Rugby Union general manager professional rugby Neil Sorensen said the competition was reviewable every year and with the national union annually putting $400,000 into the running of the competition its value for money was questionable.
He said the NZRU was like any other business in the current economic climate and had to look at costs.
"This is just the indication of the belt tightening we will have to do.
Like any business, we are setting our budgets for 2009 and having a close look at costs and outgoings," he said.
"There are going to be other hard calls to make in the next couple of months."
Sorensen said many provincial unions questioned the worthiness of the B competition, but it developed players and gave them a pathway to provincial senior sides.
The national B competition had been going for more than 10 years.
It involved the 14 B teams of the Air New Zealand Cup unions playing in two pools in the later part of the domestic season.
It has been a successful competition for Otago, with the B side winning the competition in 2006 and making the semifinals in 2007.
It failed to make the semifinals this year.
Otago Rugby Football Union chief executive Richard Reid said because of the relative isolation of Otago it may not be easy to come up with a full programme for the B side.
Before the B competition started, Otago B played neighbouring B teams and lower division senior sides such as North Otago and Mid Canterbury.
That may be the programme again.
Meanwhile Otago under-21 may become the back-up side to the Otago senior side under a proposal to change the structure of representative rugby in the province.
Under a paper prepared by the ORFU covering representative rugby in 2009 and beyond, the Otago under-21 and Otago under-19 teams would replace the Otago under-20 and development teams.
With Super 14 rugby likely to be played over a longer period, and the Air New Zealand Cup moved to a semi-professional competition, the average age of an Air New Zealand Cup player would decline, the paper said.
Players selected in the Air New Zealand Cup team who were eligible for the under-21 side would play for the age group side before Otago B.
About 30% of current premier players were aged 21 or under.
