The New Zealand Rugby Union board's held its monthly meeting in Wellington and has unanimously voted to hold open the position of their chairman and Rugby World Cup chair Jock Hobbs, while he battles leukaemia.
Asked about the financial situation of provincial unions, CEO Steve Tew called that "interesting" and admitted there's no doubt the recession's had an impact on their income.
A number of unions' returns for 2009 showed losses, with Tew indicating "six or seven" of them were in the red, but Tew's encouraged by comments from new independent board member Chris Doig.
Tew says while rugby's got some worrying trends, any other sport in New Zealand would kill to have rugby's problems according to Doig, who's a vastly experienced sports administrator with plenty of time in SPARC and New Zealand Cricket.
