THE HERALD REPORTS

Play-offs will add interest to our league, say coaches

KEVIN FERRIE, Chief Rugby Writer August 28 2008
Organisers of the Magners League yesterday confirmed that play-offs will be introduced to the competition in 2009/10.

The news was welcomed by the representatives of Scotland's professional clubs who were at the Royal Dublin Showgrounds, home of reigning league champions Leinster, for yesterday's tournament launch.

"It is fantastic that they are being brought in; it's something that's been missing," said Sean Lineen, the Glasgow Warriors coach.


Al Kellock, the Warriors captain, noted that the play-offs should suit the way their side develops its form in the course of the season. "In the last two years we've done particularly well at the end of the season," he said. "We won our last five matches last season and it was pretty similar the year before."

Andy Robinson, Edinburgh's head coach who called for play-offs to be introduced soon after his appointment to that post, noted that play-offs improve the chances of the best sides contesting the title.

"It will add to what is a great end to the season, when you look at the way things build with the climax to the Six Nations Championship ahead of the closing stages of the European tournaments," he said. "It will also be particularly useful in the season after a British and Irish Lions tour because there will, hopefully, be a lot of Celts involved in that and the likelihood is that those players will need to be rested until around October."

David Jordan, Celtic Rugby's tournament director, acknowledged that to some extent this was an overdue situation. "We are coming into line with the other professional leagues in world rugby, all of which end the season with play-offs," he said.

In that regard he accepted that the single-division Celtic tournament has a particular problem to address. "With our league the fact that there is no relegation means there's not a lot of jeopardy so play-offs can go some way towards dealing with that," Jordan said.

Even so, it could be argued that an opportunity has been missed to have been bolder and more innovative. The introduction of an eight-team play-off in the 10-team league would effectively have created a relegation zone at the bottom, while rewarding the tournament winners and runners-up with an extra revenue earner in the shape of a reasonably easy home fixture in the quarter-finals.

Jordan did admit there is scope to re-visit how the play-offs will work but indicated that a four-team format is likeliest. Rather more important in the short-term is that there has also been a commitment given by the three competing nations at a recent Celtic Rugby board meeting to give proper priority to the Magners League on its designated weekends.

In the past three seasons that has been undermined by Welsh provinces rearranging Magners League fixtures to compete in a cup with clubs from England's Guinness Premiership.

Jordan said yesterday that he is confident that plans to increase the number of fixtures in that Anglo-Welsh competition would not have a negative impact on the Magners League.

"I've spoken to Roger Lewis of the Welsh Rugby Union and he said their talks with the English clubs are still exploratory, but their commitment is to the league regarding the guiding principles we have outlined," said the tournament director.

n Sean Lineen said yesterday that he is unlikely to identify a replacement for the soon-to-depart Daryl Gibson before the end of the Southern Hemisphere provincial season in October. Gibson, the former All Black centre, is leaving the club to join the Canterbury Crusaders as their backs coach.

This article was posted on 28-Aug-2008, 07:31 by Hugh Barrow.