Premier grade refresh coming in 2026

• By Scott MacLean

Wellington Rugby’s Premier Men’s competition will have a new look next year, but just what that might be is currently out for consultation.

The current requirements were put in place for the 2015 season, aiming to give clubs greater stability without the threat of relegation. That provided a lifeline to Johnsonville, who would otherwise have been relegated to the Senior 1 grade, and an opportunity for Paremata-Plimmerton – who had qualified for the Hardham Cup that year – to step up creating the 14-team competition we have had for the past decade.

That status though came with an obligation that at its core required those clubs to have a B-team (currently Premier 2) and a Colts side. That remained in place until Covid entered our lives in 2020 and was relaxed for the next four seasons, but brought back as a requirement last season.

While the Premier competition was scheduled for a review, the withdrawal of four Colts sides during this season owing to a lack of numbers has brought the discussion of what is required to be a Premier club to a head.

We’ve seen the proposals, and there’s two parts:

Firstly, there are the requirements to be a Premier club and there are two options:

• No criteria, meaning a club could essentially have a Premier team in the Swindale Shield and no other teams within the club; or
• A revised entry criteria, of which there are two proposals. In each the requirement to have a Colts team has been dropped, which will be a bone of contention for some. In its place are two options:
• A Premier team plus a Premier 2 side and at least two other senior club sides, or
• A Premier team, plus at least three other senior club sides.

It is understood that the second option is that preferred by WRFU. Our view is that while this would give clubs flexibility, having a side operating at the second-tier to provide depth should be a minimum for any club. Similarly having as many Colts sides as possible should be a desired need in order to provide player pathways out of school rugby along with the option of playing Under 85s.

For the record both Women’s and President’s sides count towards the minimum number of teams, and only Ories, Avalon, and Wellington finished (or will finish) the season with just four teams.

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Secondly, there is the structure of the competition itself, of which there are three. These revolve around fitting the competition within the existing 17 or 18-week window between last March and the NPC season with the need for an Easter double-round or midweek matches (which were widely panned by players in the previous review four years ago), and a strong desire to return to the traditional second-round of matches for the Jubilee and Hardham Cups in place of the current playoff structure.

Those three proposals are:

• Two seeded pools. In some ways a return to the early 90’s, this would have two pools of seven (assuming 14 teams as now), playing a round-robin in each (six matches), plus two crossover matches against the other pool based on seeding pairings. The second round would feature the top seven teams from a single points table forming the Jubilee Cup and the lowest seven the Hardham. Teams would then play a full round-robin here, plus another crossover game to eliminate the bye-week which would otherwise result. Conventional semi-finals and finals would follow. Though not mentioned, it could be implied the team at the top after the Swindale rounds would be awarded the trophy.
• The second 14-team option would create a “Premiership/Championship” split similar to what the NPC used for several years (and what the FPC still does). The top seven sides – which would be initially determined by an average of finishes in the past three years – would form the championship. Again, a format of six round-robin matches and two crossover matches would apply, with the top “Championship” team promoted in place of the bottom “Premiership” team for the Jubilee Cup. After the semi-finals and finals, the Hardham Cup winner would be promoted in place of the bottom-ranked Jubilee side.
• The third would be something of a return to the pre-2015 format. In this the Premier division would be reduced to 12 teams, a 12-team Premier 2 grade (presumably Wellington and Avalon would be the two teams forced down), and an open-entry third-tier of up to 12 more teams. In the Premier division this would see a full 11-week round-robin, splitting to a top-six Jubilee Cup and bottom-six Hardham Cup that would then play five weeks, semi-finals and final. At the conclusion the bottom team from the Hardham may be relegated in favour of the winner of the Premier 2 Ed Chaney Cup.

Our preference is the first option, as it puts every current Premier club on the same footing at the start of the year. Our fear is that the “Premiership/Championship” option would simply create a “haves/have-nots” between the two divisions – Wellington doesn’t have an issue of vast distances between clubs and players have shown to be very willing to move for better opportunities – while the third might simply see a club or two disappear; one only needs to look at what happened to Wests when they were dumped out of Premier and to a smaller extent Rimutaka.

Like everyone else, we await what we’ll get. But we know it’s unlikely it will be the same as recent years.