Northland rugby boss Wayne Peters wants to have the destiny of the union decided by the end of next month.
Peters, the chairman of the Northland Rugby Union, says court action may not be the only way to try to keep the union in the top provincial competition.
The New Zealand Rugby Union announced earlier this week it would not invite Northland and Tasman to enter next year's Air New Zealand Cup.
Both unions protested against the axing and Peters, who will watch his side play at Carisbrook tonight, said the union had been busy organising information and coming up with a strategy to present its case to the NZRU.
He said the union had some real concerns over its rating on financial performance by the NZRU, which it was led to believe contributed much to the decision to exclude the union.
"We got nothing out of the NZRU that we were not entitled to. All I'm asking for is a level playing field," Peters said.
Peters, who played 13 games for Otago in 1979-80, did not want to get into a slagging match with the NZRU and other unions but just wanted a fair go for the union.
It had 6500 registered players, which he said was a healthy figure, and had attracted a crowd of about 4000 to its first-round upset win over Waikato.
"We are prepared to exhaust all avenues. As the information becomes available, then we will have to decide what to do with it. That may tell us to go to court, it may not, but we have to wait until we have that information."
Peters hoped to have the issue concluded by the end of next month.
He did not want to rate his chances of success.
He said Northland's players had been great and fully supported what the union was trying to do.
It was reported yesterday Tasman had not agreed to conditions of a $250,000 loan from the NZRU and there were doubts whether the team would compete to the end of this season's Air New Zealand Cup.
NZRU professional rugby manager Neil Sorensen said he was confident Tasman would not withdraw.
But Tasman chairman Max Spence said by not taking up the $250,000 loan, doubt had been raised over the side seeing the season out.
Northland team
to play Otago
Jared Payne, Rene Ranger, Aiden Dewes, Leo Taliu, Fetu'u Vainikolo, David Holwell or Derek Carpenter, James Rodley, John Cocker, Joel McKentry, Justin Collins (captain), Marty Veale, Daniel Goodwin, Bronson Murray, Francis Smith, Tony Coughlan.
Reserves: Tyler Ashworth, Justin Davies, Roy Griffin, Blair Urlich, Kaino Kaino, Derek Carpenter or Mike Davis, Damien Fakafanua.
