Northland women's rugby: Rule breach suspends teams for semifinals

Usually adversaries, Hora Hora senior women's rugby coach Doug Te Puni (right) and Kamo Hawks coach Susan Dawson might find themselves on the same side tomorrow. Photo / Tania Whyte

Broken rules and suspension won't stop Northland women's rugby teams Hora Hora and Kamo Hawks from playing this weekend, their coaches say.

In their preliminary semifinal game in Kamo on Sunday, both Kamo Hawks and Hora Hora fielded players who had not played three games for their teams in the regular season, breaking rule 4.7 of section four in the Northland Rugby Union's (NRU) senior women's rugby competition rulebook.

The rules states that a player must be seen as a regular member of a team within that club and must have played three games for that team in the 2019 season before the semifinals, with exceptions being made for teams who are defaulted on and injured players (provided they supply a medical certificate).

The same rule applies to the senior men's rugby competition, where 10 teams play 14 regular season games. In the women's competition, teams played just six rounds with one team playing as few as four games.

Hora Hora beat Kamo Hawks on Sunday (53-20) and would have progressed to a semifinal in Ahipara tomorrow against league leaders Te Rarawa had they not broken the rule. The same would have applied to the Kamo Hawks had they won.

Following official procedure, Te Rarawa would have a bye this weekend and play the final next weekend against the winner of the other semifinal between City and Kaikohe. If they had a bye, it would be Te Rarawa's fourth weekend without a game after they were defaulted to in recent weeks.

The Northern Advocate understands talks have been held between the Hora Hora, Te Rarawa and Kamo Hawks clubs and an unofficial game, not recognised by the NRU, will be played between Te Rarawa and a possible-combined team of Hora Hora and Kamo Hawks players tomorrow.

Hora Hora coach Doug Te Puni said four new players were registered on Friday, June 28, before the Kamo Hawks game and he said he was surprised to learn these players violated the three-game rule as he was not aware Sunday's game counted as a semifinal.

Between them, the four new Hora Hora players scored six tries despite not having any experience in rugby. Te Puni accepted these players violated the rule but he was glad to organise an unofficial game to give both teams a run.

"We are going up there to support [Te Rarawa] and just to give them a run because they haven't had a game in three weeks," he said.

"If anything, our girls have been training really well in the last few weeks and now they are really hungry and a lot of our girls have whānau up there as well."

Asked whether he felt applying the rule to a short women's rugby competition was unfair, Te Puni said he would have preferred teams play more games so more players could be eligible.

"In a full-blown competition then [the three-game rule] is fine, but you're only playing five games a year or so."

There's light at the end of the rainbow for these two Northland senior women's rugby coaches, Susan Dawson (left) and Doug Te Puni. Photo / Tania Whyte

Kamo Hawks coach Susan Dawson said her side had no reserves on Sunday after resting eight ineligible players because of the three-game rule. However, when she saw Hora Hora were playing their new players, Dawson played one player who violated the rule because she had only 13 players on the park.

"I just told [the player] to get ready and play and we'd have to accept that we wouldn't go through if we'd won, but it was a pretty dire situation," she said.

Dawson, a former Black Fern, felt applying the three-game rule to the men's and women's rugby competitions was not right considering the number of games women's teams were able to play.

"That's over half the games so I don't really see the point of having the rule in place for senior women's rugby at all, it just seems like a barrier.

"I'm just really hoping that everyone can keep looking at the big picture and try to reduce as many barriers as you can and just get people playing, we just need people playing."

Dawson said she approached the NRU before the June 30 game against Hora Hora to see if it would allow new players to take the field and not suspend either team, to ensure both teams were full complimented. She said the NRU rejected her proposal.

However, Dawson accepted the NRU was in a difficult position as this was the first year with a senior women's competition after about a four-year absence. She said a formerly proposed women's rugby competition committee could deal with these issues.

As the Kamo Hawks were one of the teams who defaulted to Te Rarawa, Dawson said she would be interested in any way she could avoid Te Rarawa coach Rawinia Everitt and her team not playing again.

"To ring Rawinia and say we just haven't got the numbers, I don't take that sort of thing lightly, I've never defaulted as a player and it was worse having to do it as a coach, it was just gutting.

"I'd be really keen to get up there, to put as many of the Kamo Hawks girls up there to make up a game."

Te Rarawa team manager Cheryl Anderson said her team was so desperate for a game in recent weeks, they had reached out to the community on June 28 and played a mock game to give the team a run on the field.

Anderson said she would be happy if players from Hora Hora and Kamo Hawks came up for an unofficial game and she felt the three-game rule was restrictive in the women's competition.

"When there are defaults, you've got injuries and everything else too, some teams barely have enough players so you have to bring other players."

Both Hora Hora and Kamo Hawks were able to lodge an appeal to the decision during a 48-hour period after they were notified of the rule violation. Neither team appealed.

Northland Rugby community rugby manager Clark Lewis made the decision that both Hora Hora and Kamo Hawks were ineligible to play this weekend. Photo / File

Northland Rugby community rugby manager Clark Lewis, who made the decision, said it was an unfortunate end to the season for both teams, but rules needed to be followed.

"For Northland Rugby to have a sustainable and meaningful competition especially with the inclusion of a women's Northland Farah Palmer Cup Team in 2019, rules need to be adhered to so it doesn't compromise the integrity of the game."

He said there would be a review at the conclusion of the 2019 season for all competitions and changes could they be made in the off-season prior to 2020.