Core of Tasman Makos squad retained for 2016
Mitchell Hunt, pictured here playing for New Zealand in this year's World Rugby U20 Championship final, is among the 16 players already signed for Tasman.
The Tasman Rugby Union is already off to a positive start with next season's player recruitment planning after re-signing all 16 of its Super Rugby players.
Tasman chief executive Tony Lewis said that all 16 Makos' players recently confirmed in New Zealand's Super Rugby draft for the 2016 season are "locked into either two-year or three-year deals with the union".
However, it hadn't necessarily been a straight forward exercise, according to Lewis as Tasman's new coaching team of Leon MacDonald and Mark Hammett continue the process of assessing the available talent.
"With having so many Super players on our books, it makes it extremely difficult to keep the playing roster as it is," said Lewis in terms of balancing individual player demands with the New Zealand Rugby Union's salary cup requirements. Lewis said that the union's current salary cap was "around $940,000".
"It's just a fiscal juggling act. So what Leon and Mark Hammett and the [Tasman union's] rugby committee have done is prioritise those players that they see as being essential to the team moving forward, and they happen to be the Super players and a couple of others.
"The next thing is that they sit down and review each player positionally...see whether they've got depth in that position and who the people are coming through."
The Tasman Griffins' successful South Island Invitation championship campaign had also been part of the selection conversation with a number of players emerging as candidates for a wider training group of around 25 players which although selected, had still to be revealed to the players concerned.
Lewis said that throughout the player reviews, there had been concerns expressed that the gap between club and national provincial championship rugby was too great and that there needed to be a better system of integration for players hoping to make the significant step up.
It's expected that selecting the wider training group, with a view to "getting them a number of games through that February, March, May window" would help that process.
"That's what we're trying to work on at the moment, how do we bring those guys up to speed?"
The Griffins' South Island success and the Tasman under-19's achievement in making the second-tier Michael Jones Trophy final at the Jock Hobbs Memorial national under-19 tournament in Taupo this year were indicative of the developing talent base within the province.
"I think it's quite exciting, we've got that under-19 group coming through and the success of the Griffins and with 12 places still to be sorted out, it'll be quite interesting to see what happens."
One new player who has already signed a provincial union development contract with the union is 19-year-old, 2.05m-tall St Kentigerns College lock Paripari Parkinson, a member of this year's New Zealand Barbarians Schools team who has a New Zealand under-20 trial.
Tasman's 2016 opponents are Canterbury, Auckland, Taranaki, Counties Manukau, Waikato, Hawke's Bay, North Harbour, Otago, Southland and Northland. Dates and venues will be decided over the next few months.
The 16 Super players already signed up for Tasman's 2106 NPC campaign are Alex Ainley, Shane Christie, Joe Wheeler, Ross Geldenhuys, Siua Halanukonuka, Liam Squire, Marty Banks (Highlanders), Mitchell Hunt, Kieron Fonotia, David Havili, Pete Samu, Tim Perry (Crusaders), Tevita Koloamatangi, James Lowe (Chiefs), Quentin MacDonald and Billy Guyton (Blues).
