New set-up suggested for senior Rugby competition

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33360, 19 October 1973, Page 22

New set-up suggested for senior Rugby competition

At a time when the format of the senior Rugby competition is taxing the minds of the members of the Canterbury Rugby Union’s management committee, the New Brighton coach and former Canterbury prop, Mr C. R. Hockley, has suggested a scheme of considerable substance.

His comprehensive plan, which involves the reorganisation of the present senior and senior reserve grades, is aimed at producing a worthy champion and stimulating public interest.

Mr Hockley’s plan also provides a reasonable means of entry for developing clubs, and of re-entry for clubs which have been relegated. The form of competition has been changed twice in the last five years, and Mr Hockley thinks it about time that the “dithering” was brought to an end. His scheme provides for a senior grade of 16

teams—the present 15, and one new team—and a senior B grade of 16 teams, chosen from the present senior reserve competition at the discretion of the competitions committee. The senior reserve grade would be made up of the remaining teams from the old reserve grade. TWO GROUPS The senior field would be divided into two groups of about even strength for a preliminary round of seven matches, and the section leaders would become the contenders for a minor trophy. The match, Mr Hockley said, could be played on a Sunday; under lights at Prebbleton on a Wednesday; or at the end of the season. The top five teams in each section would qualify for the main championship; points would not be carried forward, and the winner would emerge at the end of a single round of nine Saturdays. The remaining six senior teams would be joined by the top two sides from each section of the senior B grade—which would have followed a similar prelimi-

nary pattern—and these sides would also play a full round of nine matches for the D.C.L. Shield. The senior B championship would be contested over 11 Saturdays by the remaining 12 teams in the grade. The 16 teams to contest the preliminary round the next season would be the 10 from the main championship and the first six teams from the D.C.L. Shield field. “ADVANTAGES” “The system would have a great many advantages,” Mr Hockley said. “First, it would not completely deprive the teams at present playing in the lower half of the senior competition of the experience of playing against good opposition. Second, clubs not at present represented in the top grade would know exactly what is required of them as a first step towards senior ranking. “The real possibility of relegation would also be a spur to teams at present in the top 16. The national soccer league has shown us that struggles to avoid relegation can generate a lot of public interest.” Mr Hockley said that a possible objection to the scheme was that it might lead to more of the stronger clubs gaining places for their B teams among the top 16, to the consequent disadvantage of weaker clubs. CRITICAL

’•But comparing the record of the University club, before and after the entry of its B team, I doubt whether these fears would prove to be well founded. It is not easy to field two senior teams and maintain a high level of performance,” Mr Hockley said. He is critical of the pro-

posal to divide the senior competition into upper and lower sections, each of eight teams. Regardless of official labels, the lower section would be only a reserve grade, and there was no guarantee that a competition of only eight teams would attract greater public interest, he said. There would be less variety, and the interest provided by "giant-killers” from the nether regions of the competition could well be lost. “But, worst of all, the odds are that the eight-team two-round competition will more often than not produce a runaway winner.”