The dust has settled, for the meantime, in one of rugby's biggest spats in the last 25 years.
Although both New Zealand Rugby and the NZ Rugby Players’ Association have shut up shop, publicly the players' stance appears more opposed to the Silver Lake sale than ever.
The NZRPA proposed a counter-offer alongside Kiwi investment firm Forsyth Barr last week and, despite NZR hitting back at them initially for going public with the proposal, an offer to discuss the new deal has been made.
1 NEWS understands the public share float option will be discussed next week after it had initially planned to be held later this week.
Regardless, though, any agreement appears to be some way off, Crusaders CEO Colin Mansbridge said.
“I'm a banker with a background in trade — I've seen how people deal with a big deal like this before,” Mansbridge said.
“The numbers are really big. That causes a lot of tension.”
Some provinces 1 NEWS spoke to believe there could be a re-think, and are raising questions of those higher up. But others such as Bridget Belsham and Whanganui RFU simply aren't budging.
“I've gone out to our Heartland unions in the last few days to ask them if their stance has changed,” the Whanganui RFU CEO said.
“The strong message is they're 100 per cent in favour of the Silver Lake deal.”
The Silver Lake debate has brought other concerns bubbling to the surface, though, including rumblings of disquiet at an NZR board level.
There’s also question marks over funding for a possible new women’s Super Rugby competition, whether some of the private or share float money would go to Moana Pasfika as well as the ongoing issues over the financial state of some of the Kiwi super franchises.
So, is a U-turn towards the share offer on the cards? If that happens, heads could roll at the top of the game.
The Silver Lake deal definitely remains on the table as well, Mansbridge said.
“We'll get there. It might be a little bit more bumpy than you'd want, but we'll get there.”
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