SENIOR RUGBY

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30368, 18 February 1964, Page 18

SENIOR RUGBY

Rule Should Remain [By our Rugby correspondent] The about face by the management committee of the Canterbury Rugby Union when recently it decided to limit the number of senior teams to 12 after deciding last year that the number should be 14 was surprising. But even more surprising is that Mr S. R. Southall, a member of the committee, will move at the annual meeting of the union next month that the existing provisions for a promotionrelegation match should be deleted from the union’s rules.

If Mr Southall’s motion is passed it will mean that the present 12 senior teams could remain in the senior grade in perpetuity, notwithstanding any decrease in their strength or any comparable improvement in the junior clubs. It is not difficult to see the reasoning behind the motion. The relegation of Sydenham must have caused some concern to other senior clubs which have regularly filled the bottom places in the senior grade, but it is surely a “dog in the manger attitude” to suddenly decide that in the future no teams can go up or down. And, also, on the face of it, the passing of the motion could mean that Sydenham could never regain senior status;- a situation that should bring a twinge of conscience to clubs such as Suburbs and Merivale, which, like Sydenham, were beaten in a pro-motion-relegation match, but also managed later to regain their place in senior Rugby under the existing rules. “Own Whim” No doubt when Mr Southall’s motion is proposed it will be mentioned that the management committee has power to decide the number of teams in the senior grade and could by its own whim increase the number to allow junior clubs which are up to standard to move into the senior grade. However, that rule has been in existence for many years and in recent years, at least, the management committee has never indulged in a fit of generosity and invited a junior club into the senior grade. It may well be the intention of the present committee to bring further teams into the grade, but future committees could not be bound by an unwritten agreement which may exist at present. Many of the clubs now in senior grade won their way up from lower grade. It would be unfair, and unrealistic, if they should now decide that the system which , served them should be , stopped to protect their > senior status.

Under the present Rugby organisation the senior grade is the shop window of Rugby. It is not too much for the public to expect to see not only the best possible teams in that grade, but also to see new blood come into the grade when it has proved itself against an existing club.