It's a WORLD CUP YEAR...


Greetings all of the UCT Rugby fellowship. A new year has dawned and with it a number of exciting prospects to take us up and down the Green Mile for many months to come. I am going to continue rolling out the cliches so that you will be forced into thinking you are overhearing a conversation between Graeme Smith and Luke Watson at Nino's but you know what they say hey, when in Rome speak Romanian...

"I think the boys dug deep when our backs were against the wall and gave 110% but at the end of the day the bounce of the ball will determine whether you win or lose or don't win...umm...ya. I'd like to thank the crowd..."

I am blacklisting my number because some of you retards rate your rugby needs higher than my sunday afternoon exploits. Please if you going to call, do it during business hours..! You think I am joking?

Not so recently I got a call from a private number at 2am whilst I was recruiting some first year girls brother for the up and coming rugby season. (she said her brother was in matric, I figured 2008) Anyway, my point is some group of drunk screaming 'rugby' enthusiasts decided internal league was for them and they wanted to vindicate their decision by phoning me at 2am. Funny thing was they were on the balcony at Tiger and I was inside...

Moving along to the business end, now get your pencils and paper ready boys and girls:

Internal League Structure 2007:

Round 1: 16 Teams will be sorted into 4 pools. Each team will play 3 games over a 4 rugby week period against teams in their own pools. Teams will be sorted into pools according to the position they ended 2006 in.

Round 2: According to the results of Round 1 teams will be sorted in 4 different pools. Again each team will play 3 games over a 4 rugby week period.

Quarter finals: Every side will play. All the teams in 1st position of each pool will play against the teams in the 4th position, and every 2nd placed team will play against every 3rd placed team. Hence the 1st & 2nd placed sides from Round 2 will be competing for the Internal league Cup and the 3rd & 4th placed sides will be competing for the Internal League Bowl.

Semi finals: The Cup winners from the quarters will play the other Cup winners, whilst the losers will play each other. The same applies for the Bowl.

Finals: We are left with 8 games with each side competing for a place from 1 to 16.


Therefore each team will play two rounds of 3 pool games (ie: 6 pool games) and then contest a quarter, semi and a final game. In total each team will play 9 games during the season. If you haven't noticed this is based on the IRB 7's structure they use at their tournaments. A details breakdown of how this changes rules etc will be provided shortly...!

Essentially not much is different except the traditional distinction between an A and a B league has been discarded for two Pool Rounds. This will be reverted to from the quarter finals onward with the Cup being the traditional A league trophy and the Bowl the B league honours, except the sides will be correctly sorted into a top and bottom 8 according to merit.

Lovely. For any further questions listen to the detailed recording on my voicemail!

IMPORTANT DATES:

23rd February 2007 - Entrance forms available from Rugby Club Offices.

16th March 2007 - CLOSING DATE FOR ENTRIES and PAYMENT!!!

18th APRIL 2007 - ROUND 1 starts. First pool matches...

The managers meeting date still has to be confirmed! Please note that the entry form must be fully completed, incompleted forms will not be accepted. Selection criteria for sides has not changed from last year.

Since I am such a good oke and assuming you are possibly too lazy to fetch your entry forms, you can email me and request me to forward you one which you must then print out and complete yourself.

See you on the Mile...!