Wanganui Metro warm to Manawatu colts division Friday night rugby format

Pre-season Metro form has been taken through to the new Friday night format in the Manawatu colts division competition in the lead up to Saturday rugby in a fortnight.

St Johns Club Wanganui Metro is warming to the Friday night format as a lead in to the Manawatu rugby colts division Saturday competition.

Manawatu rugby's colts club rugby competition took on a new look this season including a spell of Friday night matches in the hope of reinvigorating the grade.

The colts' division, for players under 21 years old and for players under 23 under 85kg, will run in two rounds this year, including four weeks of Friday night matches.

Manawatu Rugby Union community rugby manager Ben Koch said after three of the eight teams in last year's competition defaulted during the season, there was a review of the competition.

"We saw a drop in teams from the start of the year until the finish of the year, so sustainability was a concern," he said. "We needed to try something different.

"We met with a number of colts players to basically understand what was their motivation to playing rugby. We posed questions like: Is the game too long? Is kick off at the right time? What is the issue behind players not showing up?"

The Friday night concept involves two back-to-back 40-minute matches against different teams.

"We found the teams that were regularly getting thrashed in the 80-minute game had real motivation problems shaping up next time the two sides met," Koch said.

"They were okay handling a 40-minute session. The Friday night format has just two weeks to run before the Saturday competition kicks in."

Metro have played four Friday matches, winning three and drawing one against Feilding 15-15. Two of their games have produced a 45-nil and a 27-nil drubbing of opponents.

Darryl Malcolm, who co-coaches Metro with Carl Gibson, said they were happy with the Friday night format.

"It gives us the chance to work different moves and game plans and also gives us an idea of where we are at in the lead up to the Saturday competition," Malcolm said.

"We also have a lot of new players this season and it gives us the opportunity to see where they are at. It also gives those new players the chance to see where they are at as individuals."

The winner of the Friday night competition will claim the Evans Cup with points reset to zero when the competition reverts to a more standard Saturday section for the second half of the season.

The winner of that, as always, will claim the Gordon Brown Memorial Trophy.
Seven teams have committed for the new set-up including the additions of Dannevirke and College Old Boys.

They are joined by Feilding, Massey Ag, Massey White, Old Boys Marist and Wanganui Metro.

Metro finished third in the competition on debut in the division in 2016 before claiming the runner-up prize last year against perennial winners Massey White.

Each time Metro and Massey White have met the games have been close.
Both meet for the first time this season on Friday night.