After reviewing the 2017 NPD Tasman Trophy club season with the TRU staff and Mako coaches, it is my belief that we had one of the best premier rugby competitions in NZ club rugby.
Last year the premier rugby clubs from the NPD Tasman Trophy produced 25 players who played for the Mako in 2017.
There are two big facts drawn from these 25 club rugby players;
- 12 club players made their Mako debut; and
- 5 players from our club rugby program progressed to Super contracts in 2018.
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These players were Pari Pari Parkinson (Stoke), Levi Auma (Kahurangi), Isaac Salmon & Ethan Blackadder (Nelson) and Shannon Frizell (Marist).
This group of club players played in the 3 Mako preseason games and defeated Counties, Wellington and Manawatu by wide margins. It is with in mind I am nervous with the 2018 club season format.
The questions we are asking ourselves are quite simple. Will it produce hard, tense and challenging rugby that will prepare the elite club player to strive for the Mako contract?
The Tasman premier rugby players face an abbreviated 2018 season and is a major change from the past two years.
- The first round, scheduled to begin on April 14, sees Marlborough and Nelson sides playing their provincial sub-union rivals over five rounds, leading into semi-finals on May 19 and a Sub-union final on June 4.
- This is followed by six rounds of crossover games, pitting teams from Marlborough against their Nelson sub-union counterparts, with competition points gained in the respective sub-union round robin games being carried through for the NPD Tasman Trophy. This competition culminates in semi-finals on July 14 and the NPD Tasman Trophy Final on July 21.
- All teams will be involved in the semis, the play-offs being split into premiership, championship and bowl sections, similar to the World Sevens Series. The games will be hosted by the top qualifiers.
- On July 21, Tasman Trophy finals will be played across all three groupings.
With a maximum of 14 games, and a minimum of 11, being available for teams in 2018 the new format offers less rugby.
I have some reservations about the forthcoming abbreviated competition, about producing week-in, week-out hard rugby, but this is what the clubs wanted. We have listened to the clubs as they voted 11 – 1 wanting to explore this concept.
The clubs put forward a case where they thought there was too much rugby and requested the following:
- Removing the Wednesday night semi-final fixture;
- No rugby over Easter; and
- No rugby over Queen’s Birthday.
The format for NPD Tasman Trophy is a trial only and we will bring everyone to the table at the end of the season and review how it has gone. I understand the frustration of some clubs and spectators who want more rugby at their club grounds. The Tasman Trophy format has undergone several changes over the past few years and we want to get to an end point where the competition format is secured and bedded in for a lengthy period of time.
A real positive is that most of the clubs want the NPD Tasman Trophy to be the pinnacle of the club competition.
#FinzUp
Tony Lewis