The New Zealand Rugby Union says it's bought some time by retaining the current 14-team premier division for next year's Air New Zealand Cup.
The NZRU was planning to reduce the top tier to a 10-team competition, to make it financially viable.
However it says with the current player contract negotiations taking place and the threat of legal action from some provincial unions, there was no alternative but to retain the status quo.
But the NZRU Chairman Jock Hobbs dismisses any suggestion they could find themselves in the same situation in a year's time.
He says while it may be easy to get that impression, rolling the competition over gives them time to resolve the issues.
Hobbs says with the rugby world cup being staged here in 2011 a hybrid competition will be run in that year, so they effectively have until 2012 to resolve any legal problems.
