Fijian nationals and other members of the Otorohanga team lace up before training.

Some rugby clubs are accused of bending immigration rules to bring young Pacific players to New Zealand to bolster struggling teams.

On a Saturday morning this month, three men sat around a table at Retrospect, a 70s-themed cafe and bar in Hamilton's Ambassador Hotel.

Classic hits played softly from a jukebox while the waitress flitted in and out of the kitchen. The men weren't there to eat – it was clearly a business meeting.

One of the men was Steve Wilshier of the Otorohanga Rugby Club, who played lock for the senior team more than 300 times in the late 80s, represented King Country and helped coach Otorohanga to its first Waikato club championship in 2012.

READ MORE:

* Kiwi rugby clubs are poaching Pacific players and paying them 'illegally', says Fiji coach

* Pacific nations should refuse to release rugby players to NZ clubs, says Tonga captain

* From grassroots to the top, Pacific players are keeping NZ rugby alive

Wilshier and his family own OTC Timber, the main sponsor of Otorohanga rugby.

KELLY HODEL / FAIRFAX NZ Retrospect Cafe and Bar at the Ambassador Hotel, where the meeting about bringing in Pacific stars took place.

Also at the table was Daniel Glass, the sole director and shareholder of Talent1 Sports Management. Glass, based in Te Awamutu and originally from Whanganui, has placed Pacific Island rugby players with clubs around the country.

The third man was the relative of two young Tongans wanting to play for Otorohanga. He was concerned by the vulnerability of young players under immigration rules - his nephew had been deported for breaching his visa.

The trio made no effort to keep their voices down; in fact, they were quite loud, laughing raucously on occasion.

The extraordinary conversation was one being had behind closed doors around the country: how to navigate New Zealand immigration rules to bring Pacific players to New Zealand to bolster struggling club teams.

If they're good enough some of the players will go on to higher honours, maybe even represent the All Blacks. But how to keep them in the country long enough to develop them, given student and special purpose visas will run out?

And how to keep hold of club players who don't make rep grade and otherwise have to return home after a couple of seasons?

The common solution is to get a club sponsor to create and advertise a bespoke job vacancy tailored to fit the foreign player's CV, a vacancy they say can't be filled by a New Zealander.

If Immigration NZ is told there are no suitable applicants then bingo – the Pacific player gets the job, a work visa and a pathway to residency. The club gets a potential game-breaker who might lead them to a championship.

And any agent involved gets their cut – but only if the player is lucky enough to land a professional contract.

Bob Wilshire, investigations and compliance manager with Immigration NZ, warns that it's an offence to provide false or misleading information, including manipulating CVs or job descriptions to match policy requirements.

He is not aware of any such cases in the sporting field, but says it's not uncommon in other industries.

"We rely on prevention and education. Certainly that would be the message we would try to get to people – to discourage them from doing it, to let them know it is an offence."

There is nothing to suggest the men who met at Retrospect cafe did anything wrong by talking about how jobs might be created. Wilshier believes other clubs may not be so careful. "Maybe they've got guys on visitor visas," he says. "They can get a visitor visa to come out for a birthday or a wedding, they're here as a visitor and they start playing rugby – you can't do that. Maybe the visa runs out and it's not renewed.

"I don't want to open a can of worms, there's a whole lot of boys in New Zealand this affects. I think 80 per cent of [clubs] have got it right.

"It's just misunderstanding – clubs think the players come out here and they can get them into a job, pay them cash. It doesn't work like that."

MARK TAYLOR / FAIRFAX NZ Members of the Otorohanga senior rugby team, including several Fijians, at pre-season training in January.

RUGBY VISAS

It is difficult to get into New Zealand to build a rugby career; most of the visas allow players to stay only a short period.

One visa sighted in this investigation allows the Fijian holder to stay in New Zealand for eight months. It stipulates he can only play rugby for his club or work as a labourer for club members.

Foreign rugby players come to New Zealand by a variety of different means. Young players may arrive on student visas, attending high schools which have waived international student fees for the privilege of having a lightning fast winger or burly prop.

Others can apply for work visas under the skills shortage category or if an employer can show no local candidate was suitable for the job.

Most come under the Specific Purpose or Event category – commonly known as the "rugby visa" but actually covering everyone from visiting dance examiners to performing artists and sports players.

The visas are restrictive; the maximum stay is one year, although they can be renewed.

Club-level rugby players who aren't paid for their efforts on the field can apply for a variation of conditions allowing them to work in other jobs, but the job has to be with the rugby club or with an employer who can show no New Zealanders are available for the position.

The onus is on clubs to support the players financially and guarantee they will repatriate them at the club's expense if they get into trouble.

MARK TAYLOR / FAIRFAX NZ Club stalwart Steve Wilshier watches Otorohanga team training. He says the Fijian players are crucial to the club.

Although some players have managed to come and go for three or four years on specific purpose work visas – applying for new visas at the end of each season – eventually they have to return home.

Many in rugby circles believe this is unfair: that the players are not only propping up grassroots rugby but also contributing to the fabric of society. They should be given the chance to find jobs and make a future for them and their families, the argument goes.

It is against this background that the discussion in Hamilton took place.

THE MEETING

At the meeting, the three men openly and loudly discussed how to bring Pacific Island players into the country and set them up with jobs.

They discussed problems with players breaching immigration rules and being deported, a source said. The Tongan man had seen it all go wrong; he told how a relative had been on the wrong kind of visa and was sent home.

Wilshier said the players needed to be patient and "do it properly".

They talked about players not understanding immigration rules. "They'll come to a meeting and they'll just say 'yeah, yeah, yeah'," Wilshier said. Immigration laws needed looking at, "because I tell you what, without Pacific Islanders, New Zealand rugby would be gone".

He pointed out that second and third division teams now had five or six Island players; Glass noted that 10 Fijian players were sent to Whanganui last season.

Glass said rugby players were being brought in as joiners, woodworkers, even beekeepers. Beekeeping was on the immigration skills shortage list so a beekeeping school had been started up in Tonga, he said. "Down the track that could be the vision of what we do."

The men also talked about rugby scholarships for island players at high schools in the Waikato so the boys could graduate to playing rugby straight after leaving school.

Glass talked about the possibility of working with schools to "overlap" visas – to give clubs a chance to recruit the players.

The trio discussed two Tongan players who they thought would be a good fit for Otorohanga and discussed how they might be able to get them work visas that would allow them to find jobs and have a path to residency.

Glass said one option could be to write job descriptions and then advertise the jobs to meet immigration requirements.

Playing rugby was a "short term solution", Wilshier said. By getting them employment, the players got job training and a chance at residency after two or three years. "Then they've got a future".

MARK TAYLOR FAIRFAX NZ Pre-season training at Otorohanga.

THE X-FACTOR

Approached b after the meeting, Wilshier says he was there to hear about "two young guys who I understood wanted to come to the Waikato to play rugby – I was interested in a couple of young fellas for the future."

They were students, he says, and their visas were about to expire.

"I said that I couldn't ... help them. What I required was them to have a visa for a ... job. There was talk about how that could occur, but it wasn't through anything to do with Otorohanga Rugby Club or any company I'm involved in.

"I told them 'I can not do that, and will not do that'. It wasn't anything under the table, it was just options of how it can happen.

"You have to have a job available which is advertised which anybody can apply for. If those people apply for that job, they are checked out by Immigration, it has to be a real job, you can't bullshit that."

"I'm not an immigration expert, all I know is what I want to be involved in, and what I don't. What you have to understand is, nothing has happened."

Glass didn't want to comment on the Hamilton meeting and what was discussed, as it was private.

He says there is a skills shortage throughout New Zealand rugby and a player drain overseas which Pacific players are plugging.

"I think they're changing the landscape of New Zealand rugby and impacting on the style. They've got the X Factor."

Rural clubs face a particular challenge, he says, with players lured by clubs overseas or in New Zealand's big cities. "If you take away six or seven of their senior players, for small town rugby clubs to replace those players is very hard to do. That's where they're quite reliant on Fijian, Samoan and Tongan players wanting to come to New Zealand to play.

"A lot of Pacific Island players will email clubs direct themselves, others will try and seek employment by themselves before they even come. Some guys will come out to study in New Zealand and then they'll try to link up with a club while they're here.

"You've even got some clubs that...can afford to bring a player out on a sports visa and pay them match payments."

Glass says Immigration rules are restrictive for Pacific players. "If they were French, Italians or Argentinians, they could live here for a year to 18 months without any problems.

"But most [Pacific players'] work visas are only six months and then they've got to go home. If Immigration could open up some flexibility for our friends in the Pacific, I think it would be a lot better."

ALL BLACKS 'THE DREAM'

Monday evening, Otorohanga Sports Club grounds. It's only January but already the Otorohanga senior team has begun pre-season training.

The players go through their warm-up drills, huffing and puffing as they work off excess Christmas fat. Otorohanga, formed in 1895, is the quintessential rural New Zealand rugby club, a focal point of the community. They won their first Waikato championship in 2012 and have been consistently in the top four ever since.

But like rugby clubs everywhere, they have struggled to find players as kids choose other sports or migrate to cities.

The answer has been to bring six Fijians into the fold, and they are now an integral part of the club and community.

Most of the Fijians have been here for several years, says Wilshier. The most recent arrived in 2012. Some are on "rugby visas" and are supported by the club, others have jobs at OTC Timber. One player who has been here 15 years and represented Waikato has a full work visa allowing him to work at OTC as a timber machinist.

"We want our guys to be part of our town," Wilshier says. "We may have jobs lined up for them depending on what they're allowed to do, if they've got any sort of qualifications or anything we try to match them into jobs – but there is a very strict procedure around that.

"That process is a very difficult thing ... it's a real challenge for rugby clubs. It's sensitive, you know.

"We stick to the rules...but we push hard in order to get them into the right area of work."

Inbar Yagolnitzer, operations manager at manuka honey products company Manuka Health in Te Awamutu, which sponsors Otorohanga and Te Awamutu rugby, says the company employs "quite a few" Pacific Island rugby players in its factory. All are working legally, he says.

He had been approached about jobs for players with the wrong kinds of visas, and they were turned away.

"They must have a working visa, if their visa is only to play rugby, I can't employ them."

Wilshier says players and their families email him virtually every day saying they want to come to Otorohanga.

"The goal is not to have the short term mercenary type rugby player, because our community doesn't warm to that. What they're concerned about is the local boys aren't getting pushed to the side and that you've got hired guns."

He doesn't see it as talent-stripping the Islands.

"It's about those players taking opportunities that are presented to them, rather than the other way around. There's not a lot of work in Fiji – the standard of living isn't that high."

The Sunday Star-Times spoke to several of the Fijian players, some of whom were on standard work visas, others on "rugby" visas. They'd all heard about Otorohanga through friends and relatives already here.

"I like living in the countryside, away from trouble of the city," says one.

They all dream of higher honours. "You look forward to going to another country when you grow up as a rugby player – New Zealand, that's the All Blacks. It's the dream."

Wilshier says some clubs treat their Island players like mercenaries, cutting them if they lose form or are injured.

"I think that's what clubs do wrong – they love to see them play but afterwards they don't really take the time to understand what makes them tick."

He'd like to see Pacific players get a "better deal" with Immigration as it "hurts your heart" when the ones without other skills have to return home.

"There should be a special category, because they're adding something to the fibre of New Zealand culture. Why can't these boys come and play rugby and make a living without the end game – without having to go home? If they are good people, can hold down good jobs, why can't they be here?"

Otorohanga wouldn't be the same without its Fijians, he says.

"They're just really important to us because they're great guys, they are part of our heart – they tick and bleed with us. One of them named their kid after me, you know?"