NZRU wins commercial relief

In the face of absent All Blacks, the New Zealand Rugby Union has successfully won a reprieve from New Zealand’s Commerce Commission that provides relief for its provincial unions to extend their salary caps so as to contract replacements.

Contracted All Blacks have missed out on Super 14 action and are also due to miss out entirely on the Air New Zealand Cup – the premier domestic competition of New Zealand, because of World Cup preparations.

Provincial unions therefore now have the financial leeway to find adequate replacements to plug those gaps.

The Commission agreed with the NZRU that the additional salary cap costs associated with the conditioning programme should be excluded from provincial unions’ salary cap spending levels.

Moreover, the Commission agreed that each All Black should attract a salary cap allowance of up to NZ$18 000 which a provincial union could then spend on an Air New Zealand Cup replacement player, with this spending being excluded from the provincial union’s salary cap spending level.

NZRU Deputy Chief Executive Steve Tew said the Union was happy with the decision.

“It gives provincial unions appropriate salary cap relief while at the same time maintaining the integrity of the salary cap,” he said.