Rugby: Breaking up and looking forward

The ORFU/Highlander split. ODT graphic.

The wedding was rushed, the honeymoon was a little difficult, the early years were gloriously successful and after that . . . well, the less said about those years, the better.

And now, the end is near. Otago and the Highlanders, once barely distinguishable from each other but now dysfunctional partners in a faltering relationship, are to be cleft in twain.

• ORFU changes welcome 

Sweeping changes revealed yesterday include the establishment of a Highlanders management team that, for the first time, will be formally and almost entirely separate from the Otago Rugby Football Union.

A Highlanders general manager role has been created, replacing the chief executive role held by ORFU boss Richard Reid, and the new employees will be based away from Carisbrook.

It is the most significant development in the history of the Highlanders franchise, easily trumping the home final in 1999, the massive dispute between coach Laurie Mains and players in 2003, and the decision to avoid the draft where possible.

Why has it happened?

It all seemed so simple when New Zealand rugby joined the professional era in 1995 and created five franchises to play in the Super 12.

Those franchises were naturally established in the old "big five" unions: Auckland, Waikato, Wellington, Canterbury and Otago.

And it took some time for people to stop calling the franchise teams by their provincial names, and for nicknames like the Highlanders to catch on.

The franchises were dominated by the biggest of the unions underneath. So the Blues were essentially Auckland, and the Highlanders were very much just Otago with a token Southlander or two tossed into the mix.

The host provincial unions were contracted by the New Zealand Rugby Union, the 100% shareholder in the five teams, to run the franchises. In the Highlanders' case, this was great for Otago, because it could recruit new players simply by dangling a Super 12 contract in front of them.

But fast forward a few years and the lustre has been stripped right off the union-franchise arrangement, at least in Highlanders country.

Both are struggling on the field, both are bleeding money (a sort of salvage operation started this year, but millions of dollars have disappeared in recent years) and both have a public image that has suffered from years of battering.

Now, instead of seeing the link between Otago and the Highlanders as an obvious and sensible thing, it is seen as a drain on both. People are being forced to spread their ability and attention over dual roles, resources are diluted, and the ability of one team to get ahead is compromised by the performance of the other.

Perhaps the single biggest reason the split has emerged now is the expansion of the Super competition.