You can gently accuse a certain club of stockpiling more talent than it needs, rib another for not having won the banner in 20 years and question whether it is absolutely necessary for a third to wear such hideous blazers.
None of those issues cause a flutter compared to the firestorm you encounter if you dare to question whether University B should be axed from Dunedin premier rugby ranks.
It is a divisive topic, but it is also timely.
Varsity B has not won a game since April 2005, has conceded 50-plus points in each of its past six games, and has an average losing margin of 70 points this season.
Concerns have been raised about the safety of the generally younger, less physically equipped players in the B team, and the value of having a team that is essentially making up the numbers in the premier grade has been questioned.
But it is far from a simple issue, principally because the University club has such a glorious history and has been such a vital part of Otago rugby for so long.
University has produced more All Blacks than any club in New Zealand, and won more banners than any other Dunedin club.
Varsity B joined the top ranks of Dunedin rugby in 1916, and has never left.
It beat Varsity A for the first time in 1938, 11-8, led the competition for most of the 1958 season, and - up until about four years ago - was a competitive part of the premier grade.
Times have changed.
Where clubs such as Kaikorai and Southern could once rely on employed, mainly blue-collar older men to fill their side, they now have, and need, their fair share of students.
University of Otago youngsters who miss out on the A side tend to bolt for any club that will have them.
The B team is increasingly viewed as a dead end.
You also hear grumblings about the way the University club places so much emphasis on Varsity A, and appears to treat Varsity B as an afterthought.
Throw in the odd fact University is the only club in the major New Zealand centres to have two premier teams, the desperation to avoid a bye in the premier competition and the doubt over Taieri's suitability to return to the top level, and you have one confusing picture.
To Bill Thompson, University president and former long-serving B manager, it's quite simple.
"If the Bs no longer exist, or they are pushed to prem two [premier division two], our club will basically be destroyed," Thompson told the Otago Daily Times.
"It won't be any good for Varsity or Otago rugby."
Thompson believes the players trying to hold Varsity B together at the moment would leave the club if the team was dropped down a grade, because they all want to play premier rugby.
He conceded there were players who were dispirited after missing selection for Varsity A and had gone to other clubs.
But he questioned the actions of other clubs in Dunedin who "wooed" University players simply to pad their squads. He mentioned defending champion Southern, which dipped heavily into University ranks this year.
Thompson agreed more needed to be done to ensure the Bs were competitive. But he rejected the suggestion the University club treated its second-string side like a poor cousin.
"We do everything we can to look after the B team. I've managed the Bs more years than I've managed the As and they were a good bunch of guys every year.
"I think the club goes out of its way to keep the Bs going. Anyone who says otherwise is ignorant.
"I've seen most of their games this year and I am very disappointed with the scorelines. But I'm not concerned, because the Bs are playing a heck of a lot better than the scores indicate.
"I've described the Bs as leaking tries. They generally give away one right before half-time and a few at the end of the second half when they run out of a bit of energy and enthusiasm."
The plight of the B team has highlighted a worrying future for the University club.
It has plush new clubrooms at University Oval, but struggles to find people to run the club because most graduates leave Dunedin.
There were once nine University teams, and there are now just five: the two premier sides, a women's team, and two colts teams.
Further north, it is interesting to see what has happened to Otago's neighbouring university.
Canterbury University used to have two premier teams and now has just one, and it is struggling.
The two premier coaches with the best handle on the Varsity B situation are John Leslie (University A) and Peter Taylor (Kaikorai).
Leslie emerged as a University star in the early 1990s and went on to play 123 games for Otago and 32 tests for Scotland.
Three years ago, he started coaching the University Blue Colts, and is now in his first season of premier coaching.
For obvious reasons, Leslie is reluctant to explicitly say Varsity B should be demoted. But he does have strong feelings on the issue.
"I think you must think of the boys in the B team. They're good young boys who want to have a game of footy with their mates every week," Leslie said.
"I think it's very important you should go on to a rugby field thinking you might win, you might lose, and you get a bit of both.
To go out and get absolutely stuffed every week is pretty hard on young boys.
"There's a real prospect of losing these guys from the game or, even worse, them getting seriously injured. They're getting absolutely physically smashed."
Leslie offered to coach Varsity B this season - but only if it dropped down to premier division two. The offer was rejected.
Leslie confirmed the process of selection at the club involved him picking a relatively large A squad, then everyone else being shuffled to the Bs.
But he denied there was too much emphasis on the A team.
"I think there should be lots of emphasis on Varsity A being successful, but I think there should also be emphasis on Varsity B being successful.
"If they played prem two, they'd be semifinal contenders. They'd probably be championship contenders."
Leslie believes what has hurt the University club most is the change in the student demographic.
He recalls his early days at the club where none of his student mates would even consider travelling across town to play for Southern or Dunedin.
Now, many of the students have cars and training is only 10min away.
Kaikorai coach Taylor holds forthright views about the University club. He believes Varsity B should be in the premier grade, but he blames the club for allowing the B team to slide into its present dire state.
He coached Varsity B in 2005 and left the club with a sour taste in his mouth at what he felt was a blinkered attitude by its administration.
"The problem, in my personal view, is the attitude and approach taken to resources at the club by the club's committee," Taylor said.
"That's the problem. It's not the players. The will and the dedication is there.
"The problem lies with the administration of the club and its attitude towards the team. They are contributing, 100%, to the demise of the team."
Taylor claimed he and fellow B coach Wayne Vorrath were asked, after the 2005 season, to make a submission to the club to suggest how the team's fortunes could be lifted.
They suggested the A and B teams be run as one squad.
Each week, a nucleus of top players would be first-choice selections for Varsity A, but the next best players would turn out for the Bs and everybody would train together.
"You'd be able to pack live scrums, opposing line-outs, back moves and there'd be some synergies there."
The plan was adopted by the University committee after some debate, Taylor said.
He went back to his B players, got their feedback and discovered they were enthused about the new plan.
A few months later, the proposal was canned.
"It was overturned following a committee meeting. A couple of guys who weren't present at the previous meeting wanted to debate the issue again. I got rung up to say my job as B coach was purely to develop players for the As. On the basis of that, I pulled the pin straight away."
Taylor believes Varsity B should consistently finish anywhere between seventh and 10th in the Dunedin premier grade.
He is adamant that if the B team is treated better, it can do that.
"At the moment there's the ridiculous situation where a bunch of players are identified as A players, and the rest can go sing. That's the reality of University rugby and it's wrong.
"We had situations where the As had 30 players in their squad. You'd go to their game and they'd have half a dozen players standing there and watching. That's a ridiculous policy."
Watching from the sidelines in this issue is the Taieri club.
It dropped out of premier rugby in 2001 because it could not field a side, and initial hopes it would soon be back were dashed.
Taieri now needs to win premier division two, then win a promotion-relegation game against the bottom-placed side in premier division one, to get back to the top tier. In the past three years, Taieri has lost to Dunedin in the division two final.
Any decision to tinker with premier rugby has to go through the channels of the Metropolitan Committee, the Rugby Council and the Otago Rugby Football Union.
ORFU amateur rugby manager Justin Gardner said the University B situation was difficult because there were sound arguments for the team's retention, and its removal.
"They're [Bs] a key component of Dunedin club rugby and they're critical for the Varsity club. But the other schools of thought are about the high scores and the player issues," Gardner said.
"The issue about demoting Varsity B, if it did occur, is that there would be a flow-on effect. What would happen to the premier one competition? Could it sustain a nine-team competition? Does it impact [on] anyone else?"And then we would have to look at premier two as well."
Gardner said Dunedin had the numbers to sustain 10 premier club teams.
