By Dale Budge
Anyone that follows local rugby needs to read some of these home truths. The game is in trouble and unless attitudes change things will only get worse.
As the club season reaches the all-important knock-out stages a few issues are threatening to over-shadow a thrilling competition.
The biggest misconception around is that Counties Manukau Rugby and their staff have any control over anything to do with club rugby – they don’t. Clubs control EVERY aspect via the Council of Delegates.
Each club has one representative on the Council of Delegates and that group decides on every aspect of the sport in a majority rules situation. They determine what structure the competitions look like, what eligibility criteria looks like, any dispensation there could be and what punishments there are for infractions.
Union staff are constantly being blamed for everything anyone perceives as wrong with club rugby when in fact they have no ability to do anything without COD’s direction. It is unfair that they are blamed when the very people doing the blaming are part of the same clubs that hold all the control.
If the clubs want to play a 13-a-side game and roll the ball between their legs when they get tackled there is nothing CEO Aaron Lawton or PIC Steelers coach Tai Lavea can do about it.
The problem is clubs are selfish and will vote on what works best for them at the time rather than what is best for the sport. Likewise, clubs are set in their ways and are reluctant to make radical changes to what they know until it is too late.
Rugby was so strong over the decades that it didn’t matter if there were squabbles within the COD but as the sport begins to lose numbers and become less relevant to the masses, that squabbling is having a major impact on the sport.
There is a growing chorus reverberating around the district to examine whether the COD system is the best way to administer the club game, but it will take clubs to give up their power to make any change. As more and more clubs get fed up with the status quo that becomes more of a possibility.
Refereeing has also become a major issue in the game this year. There are nowhere near enough referees to fulfil the requirements and there is major dissatisfaction within referee circles around the behaviour they are facing.
There are the horror stories of referees being physically threatened but the everyday behaviour of constant whinging, moaning, and arguing around subjective decisions is getting out of control and affecting the number of referees controlling games.
There have been multiple warnings to clubs across the year to address the situation, but the problems have continued. It has now got to a point where referees will act if that poor behaviour continues. With knock-out games starting this week there is a real possibility of a club losing home advantage because of their treatment of referees.
Abuse is not just calling a referee a cheat – any constant questioning of a decision, undermining in any capacity, is abuse.
Everyone involved in the club game needs to get a better understanding of how the game is run, who makes those decisions and what is acceptable to say to or in front of a referee.
Once you understand you might re-think how you behave or what you say and maybe then the game can move forward.
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