Clubs to be asked to agree on 'action points'

Richard Kinley.
Richard Kinley.
Is night rugby coming to a club near you soon?

Perhaps is probably the best answer.

It was just one of "the many" ideas which were kicked around during a club rugby forum on Wednesday night, Otago Rugby Football Union general manager Richard Kinley said.

The forum was well attended with 50-60 people present. Some very familiar themes were aired.

There was a lot of talk about how best to bridge the gap between secondary school rugby and the club scene.

Player retention, coaching resources and the financial health of clubs was also well canvassed.

And there was discussion about "the competition windows" and the development of junior rugby.

"Another thing that came up was how do we lift our communication with our members," Kinley said.

"So there was lots of different things and I don’t think the focus was just night rugby. That was one thing that was discussed."

While Kinley felt the idea had merit, there were also plenty of drawbacks.

"How many grounds have lights that are good enough for night rugby?", he said.

"We have to think about player welfare if we had a round on a Wednesday and then on Saturday again. If you are trying to play two games in a week, it makes it pretty tough for the players."

The clubs were also concerned that shifting home fixtures to a ground which could support night rugby would impact on the club’s ability to generate revenue through the clubrooms.

"We’d love to have games every Friday night under the roof. But if you give away too many home games to play night rugby, I’m not sure the people will gravitate back to the clubrooms."

Kinley said the next step was for the ORFU to put together a summary of the ideas discussed in the forum and take it back to the clubs to agree on some "action points and priorities".

"We are here to help the clubs; it is not about us telling the clubs what to do."

The premier competition was a little rocky this season with Pirates threatening to default a match early on.

It battled through but lost 15 consecutive games.

Taieri defaulted a playoff game and Zingari-Richmond put out an under-strength side against University A and was humiliated 137-0.

Harbour and Zingari flirted with the idea of fielding some combined teams, and sharing the cost of a rugby development officer, but elected not to go ahead.

There were also some complaints about the format.

Two round-robin games were shorn from the draw this season which meant some teams only  met each other once during the regular season.

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