It's D-Day day for provincial rugby with the NZRU's board meeting in Wellington to vote today on the Air New Zealand Cup's future format.
Their decision's due to be made public tomorrrow and follows an acrimonious debate, triggered by the decision to drop four teams and move to a 10 team compeitition with a six-team second tier.
That's prompted appeals from the likes of Tasman, Counties Manukau and Northland growing criticism of the NZRU after this year's competition saw teams from outside the main centres perform well and pull bigger crowds than the main unions.
Another factor is the new collective agreement between the Players' Association and the NZRU.
The association's reported to have proposed keeping 14 teams next year then dividing the competition into two divisions of seven from 2011.
