The Metropolitan Club Rugby Council (MRC) was split down the middle on whether the Dunedin premier grade should return to a full double round or not.
The initial vote, which was held in November, was tied. That meant chairman Hugh Tait had the deciding vote, and he found himself in a very awkward spot.
The clubs with a premier team — therefore more skin in the game — had voted 5-4 against reinstating a full double round.
Tait voted with that majority and actually went against the way his own club, Alhambra-Union, had voted.
"My club and myself wanted two full rounds. But in fairness to the other premier clubs, the majority wanted the status quo so the status quo remains," he said.
The decision could be revisited once the MRC had some clarity around when the NPC was starting, Tait acknowledged.
The votes were cast on the premise the NPC would start about the usual time, but if the NPC start date is moved forward, the clubs may reconsider their position.
"The new Otago coach, Mark Brown, has indicated he would be happy for players to be involved in club playoffs, which is great," Tait said.
"But if he gets squeezed then that is not fair on him. He’ll need a couple of games with his squad."
The full double round was abandoned during the pandemic and the clubs settled on a format that involved playing a half-round followed by a full round and an extended playoff structure.
It was messy and hard to compute. It left one team playing one more game than the other eight sides, and a pro rata system was also adopted for awarding points for the bye.
While the format, scoring system and playoff structure have been retained, there has been a tweak.
A full round, starting on March 29, will now open the season rather than the half-round being staged first as in previous seasons.
The change ensures all the teams will play each other once before the half-round. It provides for a fairer basis for seeding teams.
The teams had been seeded based on the rankings from the previous season.
There are plenty of other interesting changes to club rugby next year.
All the grades have undergone a name change.
The premier grade will now be known as division 1, the premier 2 grade is now division 2, and the senior grade is now division 3.
There is a big change in the premier colts grade.
The age eligibility has been lowered from 21 to 20. That decision has been made to remove any uncertainty as to which grade is the second-tier grade and to promote division 2.
Premier colts will also adopt a name change. The grade will be known as the under-20 colts, while the championship colts will still be an under-21 competition, but the grade will be known as the under-21 social grade.
The two women's grades will be known as division 1 and division 2 to align with the other name changes.
The rationale for the name changes is to provide a clearer structure across the grades.
