Rugby: Top four decided in premier contest

Richard Perkins.
Richard Perkins.
The semifinals and final of the Dunedin premier club rugby competition will be staged at Forsyth Barr Stadium.

One round remains before the playoffs but the top four sides have been confirmed. Harbour leads the standings with 74 points from Southern on 70 points.

The two teams play each other at Bathgate Park on Saturday. Should Southern pick up a bonus point win, it will leapfrog Harbour and claim the Gallaway Trophy.

Taieri (66 points) is in third place and could climb another spot if Southern loses. University A (53 points) is safe in fourth place but cannot improve its position.

Dunedin's shock 36-17 loss to Pirates on Saturday crushed its hopes of sneaking into the semifinals.

The remaining five sides are well off the pace, raising questions about the standard of the competition.

With the exception of Pirates' surprise win, the last round rather exposed the size of the gap between the haves and have nots.

Harbour eviscerated Green Island 99-7, Southern rebounded from a slow start to comfortably dispatch Zingari-Richmond 60-28, and Taieri recorded a 67-7 win against Alhambra-Union.

Otago Rugby Football Union community rugby manager Richard Perkins said it was up to the players to decide what clubs they wanted to play for and uneven competitions were nothing out of the ordinary.

''From my perspective, you see it in every competition,'' he said.

''It can be a bit of a roller coaster and can go in swings and roundabouts, really. You just have to look at Super rugby and the ITM Cup.

''You always want a close competition but it is not always going to work out that way.''

Perkins said the ORFU had a player placement programme, but it was limited to Otago contracted players who were new to the region.

''Players tend to come down to try out at club level to see if they can get contracted, so there are very few players who actually get contracted without playing. And these are all amateur players and are free to go wherever they like.

''If there are any new players we go through the player placement process based on the priority of a club's needs. Generally that has worked pretty well. Super rugby players get allocated through that same process.''

Green Island, for example, has Ben Smith, Nasi Manu and Patrick Osborne on its books but they were never likely to feature.

But other than that, recruiting is the responsibility of the clubs.

The ORFU provides other assistance to help lift clubs.

Rugby development officers Phil Young and Jason Macdonald are available to help with training sessions and support for coaches, so clubs are not on their own, Perkins said.

''We can help with those things but it all comes back to players. If you get an influx of players all the problems go away ... and players are free to go where they want to.''

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