Does the unbridled arrogance of the New Zealand Rugby Football Union know no bounds?

Not satisfied with extending its rugby season into February, and even January if you take the publicity-absorbing Super 12 warm-up games into account at one end of the year, and dipping into November at the other end, it now determines when other sports can play some of the most important games of their own seasons.

Earlier this week the news that all the planning that had gone into Otago's three-day game with the touring England cricket team has been thrown into disarray because the all-conquering Super 12 organisers had decided to plonk a game on Carisbrook in the middle of the time allocated for the cricket match.

This is no ordinary cricket match. It represents 125 years of Otago Cricket, a not insignificant milestone.

It also represents about 112 years of co-operation between sports officials over the use of the main ground in Dunedin.

But not only Otago is affected.

Canterbury Cricket's hopes of utilising Jade Stadium for their game with England for their own 125th celebrations have also been compromised by yet another allocation of a Super 12 match in the middle of a game.

Any claims that cricket might have had for the matches have been walked all over like All Black forward packs would have done over opponents in the days they were fearless, a distant memory which probably tests the recall powers of some of those administering that code.

The itinerary for the England cricket tour has been out for nearly two months now.

Does anyone responsible for drawing up the rugby itinerary care to consult a calendar before putting their oh so important claims on a venue?

Not satisfied with upsetting Otago and Canterbury cricket officials, the Super 12 organisers have struck again in Wellington.

They have scheduled a Super 12 match on the same evening as New Zealand's World Champion softballers, the Black Sox were to have a match in Wellington against the team they beat in last year's World Series final in South Africa, Japan.

Before even considering the affrontery of the jumped-up buffoons who are assaulting the very sporting fabric of the nation, spare a thought for the softball fraternity.

This is a group of people without access to the money that is freely thrown around at everyone else's expense in rugby circles.

This is a team that lives on the poverty line in the money stakes.

This is a team that actually wins a world event, unlike their rugby playing cousins who have everything laid on for them but still can't make it.

They have one chance in four years, in eight if you count their success in 1996, to capitalise on their success, in terms of money, interest and self-promotion.

And what does big bully rugby do?

It dumps on them hugely.

The NZRFU displays an attitude towards its position in New Zealand sport that would not be out of place in Taleban repression manuals. In truth they probably didn't even consult sports calendars to see if there was a clash.

Would it have been too hard for rugby to have worked in with softball and perhaps made a gala occasion of the event? Softball one night, rugby the next?

Not on your Nelly.

That might have represented a weakening of rugby's grip on public attention.

It's the same in Dunedin and Christchurch. Was it really that hard to make an adjustment to allow cricket to celebrate a significant occasion?

Rugby has a responsibility in this country. It might be all powerful with access to money undreamed of by other sports.

But it also needs to lighten up in its attitude to "competitors".

The latest three examples do nothing to endear the NZRFU to the rest of the sporting populace.

It would be a generous gesture from the overbearing Godfathers of the New Zealand sports scene if they immediately announced they were going to have a look at the scheduling of the games concerned in the best interests of sport in this country to see if changes could be made.

However, generosity and the NZRFU can't be mentioned in the same breath at the moment.

(DISCLAIMER) The views expressed in this article are not necessarily those of New Zealand Cricket.

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