Showdown expected over Super 12 expansion
February 6, 2002

The on-going conflict between the Australian Rugby Union and their New Zealand counterparts over the expansion of the Super 12 competition is set to come to a head this month.

Both countries have accused the other of damaging plans to increase the competition to 14 teams next year and the Sanzar partners will sort out the issue this month.

The New Zealand Herald reported that while the ARU has accused the NZRFU of stalling since Sanzar agreed to the expansion last July, the NZRFU claimed the ARU had not completed their side of the deal.

The spat returned to the public arena this week with comments from ARU chief executive John O'Neill. He doubted whether Australia would get their fourth side in an expanded series when Sanzar meet in Cape Town on February 16-17.

He blamed the NZRFU for delaying and then imposing a list of conditions for an expansion just before Christmas.

In reply yesterday, NZRFU chief executive David Rutherford claimed the ARU had not produced the information they were to get from Super 12 financiers, News Ltd.

"We do not feel we have been blocking progress on the package Sanzar asked for," Rutherford told the newspaper. "We have not been deliberately delaying but we were slow to send our conditions while Australia was slow in other areas."

The NZRFU has been a reluctant supporter of an expanded Super 14, an idea approved last year by the Sanzar board of representatives from New Zealand, Australia and South Africa.

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