MAITLAND have slammed Newcastle and Hunter Rugby Union rival The Waratahs for disregarding the “spirit of the game” and have questioned their place in the region’s premier competition.
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The criticism comes after the Tahs used fresh reserves in the semi-final-securing 32-20 win over the Mailtland in first grade when fielding only 12 players in each of the lower grades.
Under the NHRU by-laws, clubs must field a minimum of 12 players.
The Waratahs, who were last week docked five points (reduced on appeal from eight) had to beat Maitland with a bonus point to leapfrog the Blacks into fifth place.
Maitland won third grade 66-5 and second grade 85-5, which had the “mercy rule” applied and was pulled up early.
The Blacks expressed their disgust on the club’s facebook page on Saturday with vice president Dan Gollan accusing the Tahs of “doing their best to destroy the culture of Newcastle and Hunter Rugby”. Pat Howard said they had “systematically cheated the player points system” and called on the NHRU to “seriously consider” the club’s place in the competition.
Blacks president Ben Emmett didn’t back down from club’s stance on Monday.
Waratahs president Darrell Date admitted that “in hindsight” they had erred in using fresh reserves.
“We were in a situation where we had to win,” he said. “Desperate times cause for desperate measures. We used three fresh reserves. In hindsight it was the wrong thing to do.”
Although high achievers in the top grade, the Tahs, who have produced more Wallabies than any NHRU club, have struggled in the lower grades and are the only premier club, apart from University, not to field junior teams. They have been in talks with former premier club Easts about a merger and Date is confident that the player shortage will be alleviated before next season.
“We have some processes coming into place re the juniors that we will be working on during the off-season,” Date said. “We have also been in talks with Easts.”
Apart from lower-grade debacle, Maitland were also incensed that Waratah were successful in having the player-points penalty reduced to five points.
“We are investigating our options,” Emmett said. “The Blacks aren’t the cheats here, and yet bizarrely we are the ones who have copped it for the behaviour of people who have little or no interest in anything other than the success of one grade at the detriment of everything else.”