Rotoiti rugby team win appeal but finish third

Rotoiti playing Waikite

In an emergency Appeals Committee meeting held on Thursday night, Rotoiti have won back four competition points.

That's not enough however for them to contest today's Farmlands Central Bay of Plenty Premier Mens final against Whakarewarewa at Puarenga Park.

The BOPRU Appeals Committee, which is an independent three-person volunteer committee overturned the Competitions and Emergency Committee finding that stripped Rotoiti of four points on the grounds that the competition rules weren't able to be applied to their decision, because one of the players involved in this case had two active registrations at the same time and in the same competition year for different rugby clubs in the region.

The rule that could not be applied revolved around how player transfers are to be dealt with when players transfer from one club to another mid-season. Given the player was registered, albeit incorrectly to two clubs simultaneously, the transfer rule couldnot be applied.

As a result, Rotoiti win back the four competition points they were stripped of from their final round robin match against Waikite, placing them 2nd equal with Ngongotaha on the competition table.

However, the competition rule on determining how teams on equal points are separated lists a number of criteria to be applied in such instances.

The first criteria to be applied is who beat who during the last match they played against each other and in this instance, that was back on Saturday August 1 when Ngongotaha beat Rotoiti at Emery Park 11-5.

As a result, Ngongotaha remain the other finalist to take on Whakarewarewa today.

'This has been an extremely challenging and stressful process for all concerned to have gone through,” says Community Rugby Manager Pat Rae Community Rugby Manager.

'Grassroots rugby is extremely dependent on extremely hard working volunteers to survive.

'Matters like this appeal are extremely time consuming and stressful for all of those volunteers and in an age when all clubs and schools find it difficult to recruit volunteers to help them operate, incidents like these don't help the cause,” says Pat.

'For the greater good of rugby, I implore all of those people that were involved in this case to reflect on their personal decisions so that everyone can learn and make better decisions moving forward.”

The Premier Mens Development final between Whakarewarewa and Ngongotaha will be played at 1pm at Puarenga Park.

The Premier Men's final between Whakarewarewa and Ngongotaha will be played at 2.45pm, also at Puarenga Park.

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