There are worrying times ahead for the NZRU, as the Australian Rugby Union (ARU) has relaxed it's policies relating to foreign players playing for their Super 14 franchises.

This has meant some of our players are now being targeted by Australian teams to go over there and play for their sides. It's bad enough we have to contend with European and Japanese clubs poaching our players - now, we have to keep an eye on our next door neighbours.

Recently Auckland Blues flanker, Daniel Braid, signed to play with the Queensland Reds for the 2009 season - which will effectively make him unavailable for the All Blacks. Although his playing days in the black jersey are probably over...

The Reds are also believed to be chasing the signature of young Blues center Benson Stanley, who has been earmarked as a possible All Black in the future. This would be a big loss - not only for the Blues, but New Zealand rugby, as Stanley has a big future ahead of him.

Stanley was actually born in New South Wales, and would be eligible to play for the Wallabies if he decided to play in Australia. Because of this, we think it would be a good idea for Graham Henry to select him for the upcoming tour to the Northern hemisphere, and in doing so secure his future here in New Zealand.

It would be a real tragedy if the Super 14 started allowing players to play for any of the 14 teams - no matter what country they are from. If we had Australian or South African players playing for our five franchises, it would severely deplete our player depth. We'd see a lot of our young players heading overseas, and with the current NZRU ruling they wouldn't be eligible to play for the All Blacks.

The NZRU would therefore have to change it's rule on the matter, but that would only heighten the problem - we'd then see even more players go chasing the big money in Europe or Japan, especially if they knew they could still represent the All Blacks.

The beauty of the current system is that anyone one who has aspirations of playing for the All Blacks has to stay in New Zealand, which means that our competitions stay strong. The fact that the ARU are trying to poach our players suggests that they are struggling to keep up their player numbers - which has really always been an issue for the ARU, when you consider that they are competing with league and Aussie rules.

Lets just hope that the Super 14 doesn't end up like the European competitions, where players from any country can play for any team.

It would be a terrible thing if the Super 14 goes down that path...