Home advantage goes to Greytown

Greytown will have home advantage when they play Marist in a Wairarapa-Bush senior first division rugby quarter-final match this coming Saturday.
Just who would earn that distinction was in debate after the two teams met in the last series of preliminary round games with Greytown scoring an upset 8-3 victory.
That result left not only Greytown and Marist equal third on 17pts, but also Pioneer and East Coast, and only two of them could host quarter-final games due to Gladstone (24pts) and Carterton (20pts) already being guaranteed that distinction.
The first countback system to separate the four tied teams was points differential and that brought conflicting results for Pioneer and East Coast, Pioneer's plus 36pts also earning them a home quarter-final and East Coast's plus 9pts relegating them to sixth on the points table and out of the reckoning in that regard.
For Greytown and Marist though there was the agony of a second countback because they both had a points differential of plus 11.
In this particular instance the result of their preliminary round match became the key factor with Greytown's win there making them the fourth home team for the quarters.
The ludicrousness of the current competition format which allowed for all but one team in this case Puketoi to qualify for the quarter-finals is highlighted by the seeded draw for this Saturday's games.
Gladstone, as top seeds, play eighth seeds Eketahuna at Gladstone.
Their records in the preliminary round could not be more diverse with Gladstone having won five from five and Eketahuna having lost five from five yet an Eketahuna victory on this occasion would see Gladstone eliminated from the championship race.
It could also be argued that Carterton is basically on a hiding to nothing when they host Martinborough who finished eight points behind them in preliminary round play while other quarter-final games see Pioneer playing East Coast at the Park Sportsground and Greytown, of course, at home to Marist.
Happily, however, the chances of the present competition format remaining in place for next season look slight with the Wairarapa-Bush union's council of clubs calling for submissions from all clubs as to what they see as the best system for the premier league.
Those submissions will be considered by a special sub-committee who will then recommend to the council of clubs what the 2009 format should be.
The senior third division quarter-final draw is: Pioneer v East Coast at Park Sportsground, Carterton v Featherston at Carterton, Tuhirangi v Gladstone at Tuhirangi, Masterton Red Star v Marist at Memorial Park.