The Senior Club Working Group is proud to release the AR Plus Baywide Premier Mens Round 2 draw.  With Rangataua and Mount Maunganui Sports still in a heated battle for 6^th and 7^th positions on the current table, the next round of competition games needs to be released before the rankings is known so that clubs that need to travel can make hastily plans.

With this week being the last week of round 1, next Saturday’s games (Saturday 15 June 2024) will be the beginning of round 2.  The format will be the top 6 teams will break off into the “Premiership” division and play five more round robin games and the bottom 4 teams will split away into the “Championshiop” division and play three more round robin games.  All competition points will carry over from round 1 meaning every single point is valuable leading into the pointy end of the season..

In the top 6, Tauranga Sports will host Greerton Marist, Whakarewarewa will host Te Puna and either Mt Maunganui Sports or Rangataua will host Te Puke Sports.

In the bottom 4, Ngongotaha will host Marist St Michaels and either Mount Maunganui Sports or Rangataua will host Judea.

The draw has been made with the following factors as the driving priorities in the following order:

1. Every club ends up with an even number of home and away games across the two rounds.  This means a top 6 teams will end up with 7 home and 7 away games (14 round robin games in total) and a bottom 4 team will end up with 6 home and 6 away games (12 round robin games in total).
2. The second priority has been to reverse the home and away games from round 1.  This has mostly been achieved with two anomalies - both in the first week of the draw - Greerton Marist will play Tauranga Sports at the Tauranga Domain again and Te Puna will play Whakarewarewa in Rotorua again. These anomalies are unavoidable and would’ve created an entire re-draw.
3. The third priority is ensuring that no games played in the final week of round 1 (this weekend) is repeated next week.
4. The 4th priority was that teams did not play 3 or more consecutive home or away games.  There are three teams (Tauranga Sports, Rangataua and Greerton Marist) that will finish round 1 on consecutive away games.  Greerton Marist have been consulted and are happy to play a third away game in a row.
5. And lastly, a few games have been aligned with clubs development teams. 

The playoffs will consist of a top 4 semi final format for the Premiership Division and a straight 1v2 final for the Championship division.

Senior Club Working Group Chairman and BOP Rugby Director Warena Morgan comments, “A small sub committee has done some good mahi to get this piece of work done.  Making a draw with 5 priorities has not been an easy task so I thank those volunteers that did all the heavy lifting to get this done.”

For a full draw, head to https://www.boprugby.co.nz/asset/downloadasset?id=67fd55fb-e854-4bc7-b4dd-6c2011633d57

For more information on this topic, please contact:

Pat Rae, Community Rugby Manager, Bay of Plenty Rugby Union

pat@boprugby.co.nz | 029 487 8429         

Article added: Friday 07 June 2024