UPDATED: The New Zealand Rugby Union (NZRU) and New Zealand Rugby Players’ Association (NZRPA) are supporting a draft Commerce Commission determination that the current authorisation is no longer required for the salary cap and player movement regulations with respect to the ITM Cup because of changes to the rugby employment landscape. 

It was interesting to see Microsoft NZ country manager Kevin Ackhurst claiming on Twitter recently that the Rugby Union chose his company’s online solution because it had doubts about Google's support capability for its apps suite (he was linking to this smack-down on a Microsoft blog, guest-written by NZRFU IT manager Jeremy Burrows).

Half a year after Philips announced it was pulling its support for our national team, a replacement has yet to be signed.

One of Philips’ rivals tells NBR the Rugby Union is still shopping the sponsorship around but finding no takers.

A well-placed insider at one of Philips’ consumer electronics rivals says his company was approached to fill the national team’s sponsor void. But with the recession, it simply did not have the necessary funds on hand: “They [The Rugby Union] are asking everyone but nobody’s interested.”