With New Zealand facing elimination from the tournament if the contract remains unsigned beyond Thursday's deadline, the New Zealand Rugby Football Union (NZRFU) is under immense pressure to broker a deal with its players.
The players have locked in negotiations with their representative union over payments from the tournament with the team demanding double the NZ$50,000 that the NZRFU has offered.
"One might be more relaxed if one didn't have the precedent of less than a year ago which ended up as a catastrophe for New Zealand," said NZRU chief
executive Chris Mollar, referring to the situation last year which saw New Zealand lose the sub-hosting rights to the tournament when they failed to meet a series of deadlines.
Syd Millar, acting chairman of the International Rugby Board, remained confident that the stalemate will be resolved.
He said: "We expect New Zealand to deliver. The union would be in breach if their players did not sign. It's serious if someone can't deliver what they've signed to deliver but we are still short of the deadline and one hopes the situation can be resolved."
The New Zealand players are not the only team to have baulked at signing the controversial participation agreement which are includes a clause handing over complete control of all players' image rights to the tournament organisers RWC Ltd.
Australian and England players were also involved in lenghty discussions with their respective unions regarding financial compensation although deals have now been struck with both teams - leaving New Zealand as the sole remaining country yet to sign the agreement.
With only two days to go before the deadline to sign the Rugby World Cup participation agreement, the New Zealand players have still yet to agree on the terms of the contract.
