A rugby club has called for a review of the administration of the game in Dunedin, saying there are systemic problems.
But the committee running club rugby in Dunedin says most clubs are happy with the way the competition is going, and it gets full support from the Otago Rugby Football Union.
In a letter to ORFU chief executive Richard Reid, passed on to the Otago Daily Times this week, Zingari-Richmond secretary Jeff Holloway said the ORFU gave the metropolitan committee inadequate training and the committee lacked support and resources from the union.
The committee had no proper channels or protocols for communicating with clubs and team management.
"As a result, decisions are often made in an untimely fashion, are often re-active to pressure from clubs, are often made from an inadequate knowledge base and at the end are poorly communicated," the letter said.
"Virtually every rugby player in the city can come up with various anecdotes relating to frustration with the administration of rugby."
The letter called for a full review at ORFU board level.
Reid declined comment when contacted, but the ORFU received backing from metropolitan committee chairman Dennis Richardson, who said any time the committee had looked for support from the union it was forthcoming.
"We found that anything you asked from the Otago Rugby Union, there would be no problem," Richardson said.
He said people had to forget their club allegiance when they went on the 15-member committee, and he received few complaints.
The committee consisted of volunteers who did it for the love of the game.
Though he did not want to point the finger at Zingari-Richmond, he said the club had not registered its players until two weeks before the end of the season.
The letter also highlighted the issue of the ending of the senior grade competition this year.
It said team managers had met at the start of the season and agreed to play the competition right through to the end, regardless of whether it had to be extended because of cancellations.
But when snow and ground closures lengthened the season, the grade was ended early, a decision apparently made on anecdotal reports most teams were happy to cut the competition short, the letter said.
Richardson said the senior grade did not finish earlier than scheduled and many people forgot clubs had not wanted to play on the day of the test match at Carisbrook on July 12, and on the opening day of the duck shooting season.
A debrief had taken place on the senior grade earlier this week, with most clubs happy with the way the competition had run, he said.
