The NZ Rugby Players Association (NZRPA) has called for the protection of the game within New Zealand and spoken of its fear that the sport will be run into the ground, as the country's rugby bosses consider a proposal which ex-players have branded as "stupid".

Following a review of New Zealand Rugby's governance structure, its rugby board must choose from two proposals. The first - which calls for an independent rugby governing structure to oversee the sport in New Zealand - has been lauded by the NZRPA as what the game "has been crying out for".

Meanwhile, the second proposal would see things continue as the status quo - an approach which, if taken, the association has threatened its response will be to break away and form a new and separate entity to manage the professional game.

The media has branded the move from the NZRPA as a "civil war" within the country's sporting industry.

Former All Black Sir John Kirwan spoke of his frustrations with New Zealand Rugby (NZR) on Newstalk ZB this morning. He said the matter should never have reached the point of the players threatening to split.

"Why would you spend all that money on a governance review - money, time - and then not listen to the review? So, for me, option one is what everyone wanted and our game needs to change," he told ZB's Breakfast host Mike Hosking.

"It's really obvious. Our community game needs more resources, our NPC competition needs to change - we don't want to get rid of it, and the governance of the game has been through that review. So, for me, this is really, really stupid stuff."

Proposal one would adopt recommendations made by an expert panel which undertook a review of NZR's governance structure. The review took six months to complete and involved consultation with most involved in the sport. Its conclusion was that the sport's governance structure isn't fit for purpose and needs to change.

The recommended changes made by the panel included the creation of an independent governing board of nine independent directors, along with an appointment process with a stakeholder council that would determine the board.

On Sportstalk with D'Arcy Waldegrave last night, NZRPA's CEO Rob Nichol spoke about why the players have threatened to walk away from NZR should proposal two go ahead, after the union considered both proposals "pretty carefully".

He said while the first proposal was exactly what would be needed for the game, the second proposal wouldn't deliver the panel's recommendations but rather continue with things as usual - "if not worse".

"We're simply saying rugby in this country is in trouble and we need to be excellent off the field as well as on the field. We need to strive for excellence and we can't be excellent if proposal two is adopted," he said.

"There will be a compromised governance structure, it'll be a representative model, a provisional union-driven model and it's set up to govern in the interest of unions. And that's not going to work for this country. It won't address the issues we face at community level and it certainly won't allow the professional game to thrive."

Nichol claimed that New Zealand's rugby scene has suffered from entitlement over recent decades - based on the assumption that kids will continue to play the game and people will continue to turn up and watch it for years to come. He said rugby has never had to work hard within New Zealand.

However, with the shift in entertainment and global commercialisation of the sport, junior grades right through to professional are facing a competitive market. Nichol said that the country now needs to work hard to prove rugby is still the backbone of the country's sporting economy.

"It's part of our nation's identity - rightly so, we're really proud of it and it sets us apart on the global stage ... so we want to maintain rugby's place in our society and that will take a fair bit of work," he explained to Waldegrave.

"We feel it's been slipping away and hopefully with governance reform under proposal one, we can attract the people to govern the game and that will start turning that worm in the right direction."

On which proposal NZR would be most likely to take, Nichol said he took heart in his understanding of several provincial boards already backing the first proposal as the right approach going forward.

He said Taranaki has already emailed its stakeholders informing them of their support for an independent governing body. Meanwhile, the Māori Rugby Board has also indicated that it will also support the review's proposal, Nichol said.

"You're talking about a Māori Rugby board who, under the current system, have the automatic right to appoint a person to the NZ Rugby Football Union - they are saying we're prepared to give up that right, it's in the best interest of Māori and the game in this country to have a fully independent board," said Nichol.

However, Kirwan is less optimistic and believes that if the vote were held today, NZR would vote for the second recommendation right away.

"The problem with some of these chairmen is they're holding the game to a bit of ransom. Some of these guys are fighting - their unions lost $800,000 to a million dollars last year," he told Hosking this morning.

"It's a broken system at the moment and we need to get back to what's best for our game. So I think the problem is, once again, you spent millions of dollars on a governance review, that review has come out, and now you're trying to change it. So the problem is power."

Hosking asked Kirwan what the material impact would be of the NZRPA walking away from the governing bodies. The 63-cap All Black said there would be "a counter-argument", similar to what was seen back when New Zealand's rugby scene first went professional.

He said there will be an absolute split of the game - something he said he didn't want to see happen.

"I understand Rob's frustration because he has seen this review done and now they're trying to change it. But for professional players - about 260 and I think there's about 5000 players - we keep forgetting that we need to start fighting for it to be the backbone of our country, of our game," said Kirwan.

"If we don't help the community game at schools and clubs, that funnel changes and our All Blacks will suffer medium to long term."