Former Otago Highlanders and All Blacks captain Taine Randell talks about the start of professional rugby in New Zealand.

It has been 20 years since professional rugby kicked off in the southern hemisphere. We continue our series speaking to players who featured in New Zealand teams from the inaugural 1996 Super 12 Rugby competition.

There's a perception professional sports people are "not overly qualified" and they tend to "blow all their dosh" once they've reached the pinnacle of their career.

"Well, I was qualified earlier on, and I blew all my dosh," Taine Randell admits.

Otago Daily Times Taine Randell makes a tackle for the the Highlanders against the Crusaders.

The former Otago Highlanders and All Blacks captain remembers there wasn't a lot of advice or support for players whose careers were about to enter the professional age of rugby in the mid-1990s.

"At the time there was no career management because people were still sort of still working [outside of rugby]. It did evolve."

Randell was a student at Otago University when he first played for Otago's provincial team in 1992. But it was at the end of 1995, and after the Rugby World Cup that year, when rumours began to emerge of the sport turning pro.

"There were whispers coming back after the [1995] World Cup, people talking about you might get paid $1000 a game."

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The versatile loose forward was selected for the All Blacks 1995 end-of-year tour of Europe where he made his first appearance in the black jersey.

"I got paid $30,000 to play games in Sicily, Italy and France. It was the first time rugby players were paid to play and for a student from Dunedin ... most of it went on tax, student loans and big parties afterwards."

The birth of Super Rugby the following year arrived following a battle between New Zealand Rugby Union looking to set up Super Rugby and rival competition, World Rugby Corporation (WRC).

Many All Blacks sided with the WRC. They were given indicative contracts and promised "a lot of money", Randell says.

Randell's Highlanders team mate and former All Black, Jeff Wilson, also outlined the situation in his book Seasons of Gold.

In the book, Wilson says he signed a letter of intent with the WRC and later, a contract. For the signing, he would receive $100,00, the same signing-fee promised to every player.

"I would be paid $100,000 for signing my name. If the WRC had gone ahead, I would have been paid somewhere between $700,000 and $800,000. That was more than some players were offered, less than others."

Wilson said for the record, he did not receive the $100,000 signing fee. He took legal advice on the WRC offer and, along with fellow Highlanders and All Black Josh Kronfeld, signed with the New Zealand Rugby Union and Super Rugby.

Randell and about 17 other Otago players were also being targeted by the NZRU.

"They got us into a room and talked about loyalty to New Zealand. We signed. For the provincial guys, we were a bit naive and happy-go-lucky but it [Super Rugby] has turned out to be fantastic."

Playing amateur rugby in New Zealand in the early 1990s was an exciting prospect for the university student who grew up in Hawke's Bay.

"A great deal of players were students or ex-students and we trained twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

"Sometimes it cut across lectures, so that wasn't quite good but it was just a real fun time in New Zealand rugby to be out there playing and getting on the grog afterwards.

"Otago [rugby team] at the time was reasonably successful. As soon as the NPC finished, it was straight into exams. And if you were lucky enough to get into the All Blacks, you did your exams in January."

It wasn't until a few years after Super 12 kicked off in 1996 when players and coaches understood what it meant to be part of a professional sport.

"It was a real unknown at the time. I still considered it to be semi-pro. With the Highlanders, we trained twice a week still, the only inclination things were a bit more serious was when we had a fitness trainer come along and made us do an extra training session that was supervised," Randell says.

"And we thought that was a bit out of kilter but we did it anyway."

It was also a low-key approach when the team toured overseas.

"The Highlanders went to South Africa. When we went we just had the manager and coach Gordon Hunter, the masseur and the Speight's representative. No doctor, no physio. That was the first season of Super Rugby in 1996."

Some players continued working in their regular jobs as trades people, brewery reps or in other careers.

"My last year at uni was in 1996 and so for me that year was full-on study. Guys were still working as plumbers, builders, reps. It had changed from Super 10 to Super 12 and yes it got busier but not so much that people got to do it fulltime."

But the new-look rugby competition did bring big changes immediately in the way the public consumed the game.

"It was new for the crowds. You had super teams with a super collection of players. It was the best players of New Zealand, best of South Africa and the best of Australia.

"All of a sudden there were things called night games."

Playing in Dunedin at night when it was "zero degrees" was a first, as was the build up to each game.

"We had Jimmy Barnes playing, Boney M in the pre-match entertainment, it was fantastic. The rugby was carefree compared to the games now."

Post-match analysis and pre-game preparations were minimal. If teams managed to get a video of their opponents to analyse, they "were lucky". The internet had not yet been established, there were no smart phones and teams communicated with each other via fax.

The Super 12 competition gathered momentum as the inaugural season went on.

"People didn't have a problem with players being paid. They were excited by the fact we had these Super Rugby teams. The Blues made the final [in the first season] and everyone in New Zealand was cheering for them. If it was an 'Auckland' team, it would have been the opposite.

"The fact that we had people from Invercargill and Bluff watching the Blues play and win the final, gave an indication of how special it was."

Randell scored the first try for the Otago Highlanders when the team defeated the Queensland Reds, 57-17, on March 3, in Dunedin, in the opening round of Super 12 Rugby in 1996.

He had the ability to cover all three of the loose forward positions and wore the Number 7 jersey for the Highlanders in its first match against the Reds.

Randell played 77 times for the Highlanders from 1996 to 2003. He notched up 10 years with Otago's provincial team from 1992, playing 83 games. He was an All Black between 1995 and 2002, featuring in 61 games, including 22 as captain.

In 2003 he moved to England to play for Saracens until 2006.

Moving out of rugby and into another career was a challenge. Randell had his university qualifications in law and commerce to fall back on but it was not an easy transition.

"Qualifications are great but it is the work experience that counts. When you start a new job, for anyone, you start from the bottom.

"It's a big lick when you are used to being a bit of a star and all of a sudden I got my first job [out of rugby] in the UK, and found that we were paying our nanny more."

Professional rugby players these days have a lot more support and advice to prepare for career changes, and managing money.

"In New Zealand we are more so aware of the pitfalls of professional sports people getting a lot of money and pretty much blowing it.

"But you look at American sport and professional football and it's the same thing, 40 to 50 per cent go bankrupt and yet they have so much more support than what we [New Zealand sports people] do."

Randell says it's easy for people to think professional rugby players are earning big money but for many it's not the case.

"Yes, it's a really good wage. Is it enough to set you up for life? Maybe for the top few players if they do well. For the vast majority, it is not."

Those who struggle the most will be players who enter the professional rugby system straight from school, who aren't top tier All Blacks, have few qualifications or work experience outside the sport.

"They'll be getting a good wage by New Zealand standards but then there is tax and a certain amount of keeping up with the Jones, nice house and a nice car. People will always look and say, how can you spend all of that? But I have been in that situation as a student and it's easy come, easy go. It's hard to explain. But I can understand how it happens."

Randell, now 41, moved his family back to Hawke's Bay in 2008 where he's been involved in various business ventures.

He's among those skeptical of the new Super Rugby format which has been increased to 18 teams and kicks off on Friday, February 26.

"I'm really struggling to see how the competition is going to pan out for New Zealand and New Zealand rugby.

"New Zealand and Australia will play against each other a lot more but there will be a lot more travel for South Africa. For Japan and Argentina, it's going to be a logistical nightmare. Every away game is going to be a 12-hour flight, so it's not going to be easy."

He also had concerns about the strength of teams and integrity of the competition.

"South Africa has proven they don't really have enough quality players for five strong teams. And New Zealand, we've really got about four and a half quality teams.

"The positive I think is that there is a Japan side and we need to welcome them. And the big plus is the Argentina team, I can't wait.

"I would have loved to have gone and played provincially in Argentina, it would have been fantastic."