Rugby: 'Ineffective rule' robs club of playoffs

The loss of their protest to make the cut for this Saturday's premier men's Maddison Trophy rugby semifinals has left a "sour taste" in the mouths of MAC players and administrators.

"By rejecting our protest the Hawke's Bay Rugby Union is effectively telling all the clubs not to register players," a dejected MAC Sports Association chairman Anthony Morley said last night, hours after union officials informed them that their protest against Havelock North premiers fielding unregistered players was unsuccessful.

The union board chairman Brendan Mahony and rugby development officer Neil Pulford had met Morley at Flaxmere Park at 2pm to disclose the verdict.

Morley said his sources had informed him of the outcome earlier in the day but it seemed Mahony and Pulford had requested a meeting to lend him a sympathetic ear.

"They did allow me to express my points and agreed they were valid and a compelling case but effectively said the ruling had been made the night before," Morley lamented, adding the union and its board's rash of "inconsistencies" in rulings didn't bode well for the code.

Last night Mahony confirmed MAC's protest was unsuccessful and the board would put out a press release today to that effect.

"Essentially the protest should have been lodged within 48 hours of the completion of the game," he said.

"Effectively it [the protest] was flawed from the start so our hands were tied. We agreed he had a point. I guess he was disappointed," Mahony said, but felt Morley appeared to be happy with the ruling at the end of their discussion.

He said flaws in the New Zealand Rugby Union's database had posed problems this year, putting everyone at risk of breaching privacy issues.

Every club struggled but he assured them there would be an improvement in the registering of players from next year.

But Morley accused the board of perpetrating a history of inconsistent rulings "but there's one thing I don't want to do is to sound like it's sour grapes".

Primarily he felt the HBRFU benefited financially from Havelock North and Hastings Rugby and Sports Club each year when taking into account their total registrations, including juniors, which earned dividends from the NZRU.

Morley said while he didn't want to knock clubs who had mastered the new software he felt "there's a lot of feeling out there and not everyone's supportive of the regime here".

In lodging their protest, MAC had argued this week Havelock North had fielded ineligible players in their 19-3 win against MAC on July 13.

Morley said rule 7 of the union's bible on competitions clearly stated any teams fielding unregistered players would forfeit a game and also lose their winning points.

"That's obviously not the case. As far as we're concerned the union might as well take that rule out of the book altogether because today's ruling shows it's meaningless."

Two years ago, Havelock North officials protested about Napier Pirate Rugby and Sports playing All Black fullback Israel Dagg in the Maddison Trophy final. After threatening to play the final under protest because Dagg had not played the minimum two competition games before the play-offs, and to take the matter to a Sport Arbitration Court hearing if Dagg played, the Havelock officials agreed to allow Dagg to play two nights before the final.

The then ABs coach, Graham Henry, wanted Dagg to play as part of his recovery from a thigh injury. Dagg set up the winning try in his side's 21-14 victory.

"When is a rule not a rule?" Morley asked last night. "When the head of the board clearly feels it's in the too-hard basket," he said.

A relieved Taradale are in the semifinals this Saturday against top qualifiers Napier Technical at Whitmore Park. Second qualifiers Havelock North host Napier Old Boys' Marist at Anderson Park.