Frustrated Taylor quits Tasman [Marborough Express]

http://www.stuff.co.nz/marlborough-express/sport/5853666/Frustrated-Taylor-quits-Tasman

Tired of seemingly banging his head against a brick wall, Graeme Taylor has resigned from the Tasman Rugby Union (TRU) board.

One of two elected Marlborough board members (Murray Hunt the other), Taylor is calling it quits because he believes new blood is needed to try to make headway in what he said was a climate of negativity on the Marlborough Rugby Sub-Union board, as far as making the partnership between Marlborough and Nelson Bays work better.

Taylor said his three years on the TRU board were very enjoyable and he had nothing but praise for those involved.

He strongly believes the Tasman alliance is a must for the future of Marlborough rugby.

He joined the board because he was sick of all the negativity he had heard and wanted to put his toe in the sand for Marlborough. "The Nelson guys have been great to work with, along with the Marlborough guys Murray [Hunt] and Owen Glover and Peter Barr [retiring chief executive].

"It was a very good board, as good as any board in the country, but we are just not doing our bit on this [the Marlborough] side of the hill. We only contributed abut $44,000 to Tasman last season. In fact, if we didn't have Nelson we wouldn't have club rugby here at the moment. Sponsors have pulled out in Marlborough."

Taylor said moving forward with the Tasman Trophy (combined Marlborough-Nelson Bays premier club competition) is a must. "We've got to improve our rugby here and the only way we are going to do that is by playing an inter-club competition," he said. "Going back to Heartland would be a terrible move for our players. There's no pathway and constitutionally at this stage we can't do it anyway."

Taylor is arguably the most experienced rugby administrator in Tasman having begun with the former Old Boys club back in the late 1970s early 80s and going on to be chairman of the Marlborough Rugby Union and a New Zealand Rugby Union councillor from 1990-96.

Hunt has no plans to follow suit and leave the board.

TRU chairman Nick Patterson said he is sad to see Taylor go. "Graeme will be sorely missed. He's been involved in the game in this area for a long time. His understanding of people and how it fits together and who makes it work is pretty important. He will be a loss to us."

Patterson backed up Taylor's call for more support from Marlborough and rejected rumours that Nelson Bays might want to go it alone if the lack of support from here continued.

"I heard a rumour that Nelson Bays was off to join Auckland. God knows where that came from and why would Auckland want anything to do with us anyway?

"It's business as usual. We will scramble out this year with an acceptable [financial] result and we still have significant cash resources behind us. One of the challenges is to get more financial support from the Marlborough region because at the moment it is a drain rather than a supply and they need to step up."

Marlborough Rugby Sub Union chairman Dave McCormick was sorry Taylor had resigned and said a replacement would be found as soon as possible and already there was some interest.

While he did not want Marlborough splitting from Tasman and going down to Heartland rugby he felt the current competition model was not working where, in Tasman, much of the financial resources were going into the Makos and there was insufficient to support the grass roots and junior grades.

"I'm not too sure where rugby's heading. The Tasman concept is very good but it hasn't been run to its full potential. It's not quite working for Marlborough at present," he said.