Round ends with virtual final
Green Island halfback James Arscott attempts to clear the ruck during a Dunedin division 1 game against Taieri at Peter Johnstone Park at the weekend. PHOTO: LINDA ROBERTSON
Club rugby fans will essentially be treated to a final tomorrow.
Round one wraps up and the competition is tight at the top.
The defending champions Green Island (27 points) lead the standings, but they have a bye.
So that means whoever wins the heavyweight clash between Taieri (26 points) and Dunedin (25 points) at Peter Johnstone Park will move into pole position and claim the Speight's Jug as the first-round winner.
Harbour (24 points) play University (17 points) at the University Oval in another important fixture.
University are outside the top six and they will not want to slip further behind.
They are still missing Ricky Jackson, Steve Salelea, Jeremiah Asi, Mac Harris and Mika Muliaina, who are on duty for New Zealand Universities.
That is a talented chunk of players.
The other two games could be one-way traffic.
Kaikorai (20 points) will head to Montecillo Park to play Zingari-Richmond (seven points), who have been labouring this season.
Their only win was against the winless Alhambra-Union (one point) in the opening game of the season.
AU play Southern (23 points) at Bathgate Park. The Magpies are fresh from an impressive 31-15 win against Kaikorai.
They should have too much strength up front for the visitors. They demolished Kaikorai at scrum time last weekend.
After the round, the teams will be ranked into two pools.
The teams which placed 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9 will play crossover games against the teams which placed 2, 4, 6 and 8.
As all teams in the odds pool receive an extra bye, additional points will be added at the end of the regular season based on their finishing position in the pool.
Points will be allocated as follows: the highest ranked team will get five points, the second-ranked team gets four points and so on. The last-placed team gets one point.
Hopefully, that is as clear as home brew.
When you have an odd number of teams playing an odd number of fixtures, it all gets a bit murky.
adrian.seconi@odt.co.nz
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