The New Zealand Rugby Union will bail out cash-strapped Rugby Southland, whose creditors include marquee players owed marketing payments.
Last year, the embattled union owed creditors $700,000 and faced insolvency after it was revealed it could not pay its debt.
However, earlier this year it was rescued from financial ruin by advance grants from the Invercargill Licensing Trust ($50,000) and The Community Trust of Southland ($126,000).
The community funding grants were made on the provision the union appoint a change manager.
Cromwell businessman Stuart Heal, who will be assisted by former Bay of Plenty chief executive Jeremy Curragh, was appointed last month.
Following their recommendation the union has gone cap in hand to the NZRU, requesting a loan to pay its creditors.
NZRU chief executive Steve Tew, who was in Invercargill yesterday, was unavailable for comment.
Rugby Southland chairman Owen Shaw confirmed the NZRU had agreed to a loan, with details yet to be confirmed.
The union owed between $500,000 to $600,000, and while the players' fortnightly payments were "up to date", some marquee players were owed for marketing roles from last season.
The Otago Daily Times understands those players include All Black Jimmy Cowan, Highlanders captain Jamie Mackintosh and hooker Jason Rutledge.
Shaw declined to disclose the amount owed to the players in the squad, but said it was a "smallish chuck" of the union's overall debt.
Players understood the union's situation, and that they would be paid, he said.
Community Trust chief executive John Prendergast said community funders were working closely with Rugby Southland to identify problems with the organisation.
Half the union's budget was made up of player payments - with Rugby Southland players some of the highest paid in the country - and this was not the players' fault but that of management, he said.
Prendergast said he was confident the union had a positive future.
"We will find a way."
New Zealand Rugby Players' Association chief executive Rob Nichol said Rugby Southland's financial situation was not caused by excessive player payments, but by the union spending more than it earned.
Rugby Southland was within the salary cap and did not pay "above the odds".
However, its governance did not match the team's on-field performance, he said.
