Thereare two (or three) sides to every story and it wouldn't be fair to blame just one for the unfortunate situation where a pre-season romp takes precedence over club rugby play-offs.
On the surface, it is tempting to lambast Otago coach Steve Martin or the Otago Rugby Football Union for taking the best players out of commission on Saturday.
University A and Harbour, the two form teams of the club competition, were decimated, and both were predictably knocked out of the championship.
The students lost most of their backline and a couple of key forwards, while Harbour had its entire front row and its influential openside flanker taken away.
That leaves a situation where the club competition is seriously devalued.
Not only does it lack All Blacks and Junior All Blacks and leading Highlanders, but it also reaches its high point minus the best provincial players.
Does anyone think this is ideal?No disrespect to plucky Pirates or gritty Dunedin, but the idea of any competition is that its best teams play for the title.
That's not happening this weekend.
But it's too easy to blame Martin.
His hands are effectively tied by a lopsided structure that, since professionalism, has callously enforced the notion that each tier of rugby is more important than the one below.
The unwieldy Air New Zealand Cup intrudes into July and the concept of a protected club rugby window seems to have been abandoned.
Martin is coming off a poor season and has lost a lot of players, so it's understandable he needs a decent amount of preparation to whip his side into shape.
Most significantly, Otago challenges for the Ranfurly Shield in 17 days.
I'm dreaming about how exciting it will be if Otago breaks a 52-year drought, and I assume Martin and about 20,000 other people are too.
So, if it is accepted that the best Otago players must be released 2-3 weeks before their first competitive game, what can be done to protect club rugby? I see three options:1.
The New Zealand Rugby Union sorts out its provincial structure and puts a club window in place.
This is at once the easiest and the most unlikely path.
The NZRU could admit defeat and turn the NPC back into a simple, compact three-division championship.
But that would be far too sensible.
2. Otago lets its best players - or at least most of them - stay in club rugby.
Not really ideal.
As mentioned before, the Otago coaches deserve to get their best team together to prepare for the season.
But then it could be questioned whether an 85-point win over a Heartland Championship team actually achieves anything.
Maybe Otago could have picked a side including only players from Dunedin teams out of banner contention and Otago Country teams.
The XV to play Mid Canterbury could have looked something like this (assuming all were fit):Ben Smith, Fetu'u Vainikolo, Blake Korteweg, Ryan Shortland, Bradley Cross, Sam Young, James Kenny, Steven Setephano, Adam Hill, Charlie O'Connell, Seko Qaraniqio, Hayden Triggs, Blair Young, Jason Macdonald, James Cooper.
Fringe players get a chance and Otago gets a competitive game.
Then, for the more important pre-season games against Tasman and Southland, Otago can cherry-pick from the top club teams, perhaps selecting no more than two from each.
3. Rejig the club season.
Other unions get their finals out of the way before the representative season.
Why can't Otago?
You wouldn't want to simply reduce the amount of rounds in premier rugby - many feel the club season is already short enough.
But here's an idea.
Play the club final a full month before the start of the Air New Zealand Cup.
The best players would be involved, so the best teams should succeed.
Then, while Otago players go into camp and pre-season games, the 10 Dunedin clubs join the best six or eight teams from Otago Country in a proper town-country competition.
Call it the David Latta Trophy, or something similar.
Play four rounds, with every team getting two home games and two road trips.
Give the good people of Lawrence a chance to see University A, and have Maniototo coming to town to play at Montecillo.
Country clubs get exposed to a higher level, which should improve their standard and lift Otago's depth.
City clubs get to play new teams.
There shouldn't be too many blowouts because the best Dunedin clubs won't be at full strength.
Could this work?Maybe not.
But someone has to find a solution to what is now a massive problem.
