Rugby Promotion Proposal

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30469, 17 June 1964, Page 15

Rugby Promotion Proposal

’THE recommendation of 1 the management committee of the Canterbury Rugby Union on promotion and relegation in the senior grade which will be presented to a special meeting of club delegates on July 1 is very much like a sheep in

wolf’s clothing—the rather alarming appearance disguises a relatively innocuous reality.

Superficially the recommendation allows junior clubs a far easier path to senior status than the present rule which required the senior reserve grade to be won and then the bottom senior team’ to be defeated before senior status could be won. But it Is only superficial.

The new recommendation Is as Mr R. W. Thomas, a member of the committee, said, “an admirable job of trying to achieve a compromise.” The recommendation says that any club may enter its senior reserve team in the senior grade before May and “if the general committee considers . . .” It will be allowed to play against the bottom six senior teams after the completion of the first round. Then at the end of the season the "general committee will decide whether the team is to be acepted into senior status.” Thus whether the team can ever enter into the senior competition or finally be accepted as a senior team depends entirely on the discretion of the committee. Then there is a further proviso that no existing senior team can be deprived of senior , status on the performance of a single season —a further safeguard of the status quo. Earlier this year the management committee put a notice of motion to the annual meeting which aimed at replacing the present automatic promotion—rele-

gatlon rule by a rule which gave the management committee the sole right to decide the composition of the senior grade. The meeting decisively defeated that motion.

The present motion, although couched in more, platitudinous language arrives at exactly the same result It is the committee again which .will have the discretion to decide what teams may enter the senior grade.

For the new motion makes no mention of performances or results only that “the general committee will decide.” Presumably the present committee, if the motion is passed and it has to exercise its discretion, will take into account factors such as performances and club strength but that is only a presumption until a more definite wording Is arrived at as a guide to future committees. At the meeting of the management committee it was said that the recommendation emphasised promotion rather than relegation. But as any promotion is discretionary it is hard to see how a team can be assured of senior status ho matter what its strength, and this must be associated with the clause that no team can be deprived of senior status on the performance of a single season.

To take a hypothetical example. Burnside could apply for senior grading. It could be allowed to play against the bottom six and win all its matches. Theoretically it should-then be granted senior status. But the bottom senior team, say Albion, cannot go down. So if Burnside comes in there is a bye.

Next year, perhaps, Teachers' College follows the same pattern but this time Belfast is the bottom team. It cannot go down on one single season’s performances. So it remains and Teachers' College comes up. There are then 16 teams. Still waiting in the wings are Kaiapoi, Hornby, Air Force and possibly others. It is known that the management committee eventually hopes to have 16 teams in the senior grade. But that never has been stated officially and the present recommendation could lead to all sorts of teams gaining senior status. Furthermore the recommendation allows all senior clubs, except University to enter their B team in the senior grade. It is quite possible that a strong club like Christchurch could have a senior reserve team which could apply for senior status. And if the committee uses its discretion impartially, which it must do, then it could become a senior team if its performances warrant. For the rule does not differentiate between B teams and junior clubs. It is felt, unpalatable as it may be to the committee, that a promotion—relegation rule should be what it says—a match between two teams and the team that wins should either remain, in senior or go down. The committee already has a wide discretion Under rule 1 to decide which teams are in the senior grade; it would be unwise, and perhaps unfair to junior clubs, to have that same power extended to promotion-relega-tion, which at present is the only way in which a junior club can win its way into the senior grade.