Rugby: BOP stalemate with sub-unions

Rotoiti (pictured) are supporting a proposal to give local clubs fairer representation in the Baywide premier and division one competitions. Photo / George Novak

The Bay of Plenty Rugby Union will not rush into any negotiations with the Eastern Bay and Central Bay sub-unions over a proposal regarding representation put forward to it.

The proposal, which was tabled three weeks ago at a meeting in Tauranga, asked for better representation of Rotorua and Eastern Bay rugby clubs in the Baywide premier and division one competitions.

Currently, the premier competition for next season favours Western Bay. There are six teams from the Western Bay entered and only two each from the Central Bay (Whakarewarewa and Rotoiti) and Eastern Bay (Opotiki and Paroa).

The proposal suggests each sub-union is represented by four teams in the premier and division one competitions.

The proposal also stated that if fairer representation was not accepted by the rugby union, Eastern Bay and Central Bay clubs would leave the Baywide competition and start their own intercity competition.

At this stage, the Eastern Bay and Central Bay sub-unions, which represent 22 rugby clubs, have told the Rotorua Daily Post they want to sit down with the rugby union to negotiate a fairer competition.

BPRU chief executive Mike Rogers said they would not be pushed into any negotiations and that they were following their own processes to gain feedback directly from clubs.

He said when the proposal was put to the rugby union at a meeting last month, the Eastern Bay and Central Bay representatives stormed out, missing an opportunity to discuss the competition format.

He said he also had concerns around whether or not clubs had the chance to talk to players about any such proposal.

"I would not want to fast-track any meetings before [the clubs] have had a chance to talk with players. We have no time frames."

Central Bay chairman Trevor Albert said they had not heard back from the BPRU since putting forward the proposal.

"For something as serious as this I thought we might have been contacted by now," he said. "Hopefully there is some negotiating that can be done because we are stronger as one than we are apart."

He said if no negotiations could be made, which would be a shame, they would go down the track of starting a new competition.

"This is club driven, not driven by me. I am only the referee for the clubs," he said.

"If we don't get any response from our parent body, we will have to start developing a [new] competition."

He said they wanted to have the format and details for a new Eastern Bay and Central Bay competition sorted by October.

Albert said of the nine rugby clubs in the Central Bay, seven were behind the proposal and they had not heard from two smaller clubs.

Rotoiti, one of Rotorua's two premier clubs, president Bruno Gardiner said the Central Bay clubs were standing together, especially when it came to fairer representation of local clubs in top-tier competitions.

However, he said at this stage they wanted to hear back from the Bay of Plenty Rugby Union before going ahead with anything else.

Gardiner said it was a big move to start a new competition and they were not firmly committed to that at this stage.

Eastern Bay chairman John Brophy said this could be solved if the rugby union was willing to sit down and talk.

"It can be solved if we sit down around the table," he said. "I think we need to sit down and negotiate." He said they were simply asking for equality across the board.

He said of the 13 clubs in the Eastern Bay, nine were firmly behind the proposal.