Council of clubs tipped to change championship format once again

The Wairarapa-Bush Rugby Union's council of clubs is tipped to again change the format of the senior first division championship which starts this weekend
A meeting of the council, which has the responsibility of organising all aspects of club rugby, was held last night after some clubs officially expressed their concerns at the anomalies of the format given them last week. And WBRFU chief executive officer Phil Taylor was "fairly sure" further tinkering would be done.
Under the rules proposed in the latest format the nine participating teams were seeded depending on their standings in the just-concluded Kapene Cup competition with seeds one (Gladstone), five (Eketahuna) and nine (Puketoi) not receiving byes in the first round which will consist of six series of matches. On the face of it that may seem to be good news for them but at least two first division coaches are known to think otherwise because of the problems in keeping teams up to speed when they have what is, in effect, a two week break confronting them. Also under the latest format the top three teams at the end of the Kapene Cup Gladstone, Carterton and Marist were to be given an automatic four points for their efforts there, something which was in direct contrast to the previous system proposed which had all teams starting from scratch once that competition was over.
Another contentious change was the points allocated for a bye, that number dropping from four to two, a situation which immediately placed the bye teams at a disadvantage in that winning teams on the same day were being allocated four points for their efforts.
What all this meant was that the maximum number of points available to teams over the first round varied from 28pts for Gladstone down to 22pts for Greytown, East Coast, Pioneer and Martinborough. And with the quarter-finals being seeded along the basis of one plays eight, two plays seven, that was clearly seen as advantaging some teams and disadvantaging others. The draw announced for the first round of the main championship would also have come under close scrutiny last night. The six rounds mean six teams will receive three home games with the other three receiving only two and again there was a feeling the initial draw could have been fairer in that respect.
Hopes are that the new (and final) format for the first division championship will be available for publication in the Times-Age tomorrow.