Rugby: Villagers penalised for semi gaffe

Hawke's Bay Rugby Union CEO Mike Bishop.

Hawke's Bay rugby's "Playergate" saga has been resolved ... more than six months after it began.

Hawke's Bay Rugby Union CEO Mike Bishop confirmed yesterday the Havelock North club will be fined $500 and the club's premier team will start the Nash Cup competition next month with a five point deficit. The club's appeal to the New Zealand union late last year was unsuccessful.

The villagers received the fine and points penalty after fielding unregistered players, loosie Luke Ottley and prop Emmanuel Maui, in their 22-17 Maddison Trophy semifinal win against Hastings Rugby and Sports in August. Both players were club stalwarts with 154 and 127 games respectively.

Despite playing the pair, Havelock North were still allowed to play in the following week's final against Napier Pirate Rugby and Sports which they lost 19-16. Ottley and Maui didn't play in the final.

On the eve of the final, Hastings Rugby and Sports club spokesman Mark Sowman stated the union's board didn't go far enough on the "Playergate" issue and accused it of being "gutless". He believed the villagers should have been banned from playing in the final for disregarding rule 7c which stipulates: "Any club playing unregistered players will forfeit the match and the maximum points [5] awarded to the opposing team."

Before the semifinal the Havelock North club had been advised by the union "they would risk a protest and likely lose it" if they played the pair.

"We could have protested after the game but we did not want to be accused of being poor losers and sour grapes as we were beaten on the field and protesting after the fact. Had we known we might well have let them play as they were long standing and recognised team members rather than some ring ins," Sowman said at the time.

"We did not officially know who the players were and the Hawke's Bay union would not confirm who they were. As a club we don't make frivolous protests without the full facts. We believed that as the union had signalled to all clubs the consequences of playing unregistered players and had surveyed clubs to ascertain who was ineligible and then spoken with the clubs reiterating the consequences should they break the rules, that they would deal with any breaches and sanctions would be applied according to those rules," Sowman added.

Later in August the union apologised to other Maddison Trophy participants and in particular to the Hastings club for not enforcing rule 7c.

Bishop said yesterday he and fellow union officials had met with representatives of the Havelock club recently.

"We had a full and frank discussion about the whole sequence of events and both parties acknowledge that mistakes were made and that there were things that both parties could have done better. I suppose the best thing to come out of this is that representatives of the union have met with representatives of all the region's clubs to not only stress the importance of player registration, but streamline and simplify the process and timing of registering players.

"We think that this will be of great benefit in managing teams from the clubs perspective and from an administration perspective for the union," Bishop said.

"Both parties agreed that rugby should be played on the paddock, not through legalistic challenges to the application of rules of administration. The simplification of those administrative rules will go a long way to ensuring this occurs in 2016 and beyond," Bishop added.

Havelock North club spokesman Dai Evans was relieved his club and the union had resolved their differences.

"Rugby clubs are administered by volunteers who at times will make mistakes and errors of judgment ... The union accepted that was the position and not an attempt to stack a team with ring-in players for the semifinal."

Both parties also agreed no further comment or statement would be made.