0
Wayne Smith | April 28, 2009
Article from: The Australian
WINS will not be used to separate Super 14 semi-final contenders that finish equal on competition points.
With only three rounds remaining and nine teams separated by only seven points, it seems inevitable that play-off berths and even home semi-finals will be decided by a countback if two or more sides finish tied.
Astonishingly, the three-stage SANZAR process to separate sides that finish equal on competition points does not at any point consider which side won the most matches.
An Australian Rugby Union spokesman said yesterday that in the event of teams finishing in a tie, positions would be decided initially by a countback of points for and against.
If both teams had an identical points differential, officials then would fall back on the result of their head-to-head match during the pool round.
If this, too, failed to resolve the matter - as, for instance, in the case of the Western Force and the Crusaders, which played a 23-23 draw in Christchurch - the placings would be decided by tries scored throughout the season.
Yet, as could well be the case, that could mean the Auckland Blues, currently only one point out of the top four despite having won only five matches - but with 10 bonus points to their credit - could pip the Waratahs and Brumbies, both of which have six wins at present but only four and three bonus points respectively.
With three rounds to go, the Blues and Waratahs have an identical points differential of 12, while the Brumbies, despite having an extra win, are almost impossibly placed with a points differential of minus 52.
"That doesn't seem to make sense," Waratahs coach Chris Hickey said yesterday. "Rugby is, after all, first and foremost about winning matches."
Most critics are satisfied there is a place for continuing with the system of rewarding attacking rugby by awarding a bonus point to sides scoring four tries in a match, but there is a growing dissatisfaction with the allocation of a bonus point to sides losing by seven or less.
The rationale for the bonus point is to encourage sides that are being beaten to keep fighting, but as one Super 14 chief executive wryly observed yesterday, "there already is an incentive in place to encourage players to keep putting in a big effort ... it's called not getting dropped".
Reds coach Phil Mooney also questioned whether sides should be rewarded for losing, even though his own team has picked up three of its six bonus points this season by going close against the Stormers, Waratahs and Highlanders.
"There's logic in having a bonus point for scoring four tries but I think, personally, it's better if you only reward try-scoring, not sides that finish within seven," Mooney said.
"There was the example of the Crusaders losing 20-10 to the Cheetahs on the weekend but getting a penalty right on the bell, kicking the goal and scoring a bonus point because the match finished at 20-13.
"Good luck to them, because that's the rule, but I'm not sure it added anything to the match."
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...015651,00.html