Les Mills Colts Grade Format confirmed for 2017

WRFU are pleased to confirm the structure of the Colts competition for 2017 following grade entries and consultation with the Club Rugby Subcommittee.

Structure - Both Divisions:

To Start: 3x week knockout competition

First Round: Round robin format where you play all teams in your Division

Second Round: Round robin format where you play all teams in your division, plus semi-finals and final.

Division One:
OBU Green
Tawa
Marist St Pats
Poneke
Upper Hutt Rams
Northern United
Wellington
Oriental-Rongotai

Division Two:
Avalon
Johnsonville
Wainuiomata
Paremata-Plimmerton
Petone
Hutt Old Boys Marist
Kapiti
OBU Black
Marist St Pats B will join the competition at the completion of the knockout competition.

Knockout Competition:

The concept behind the knockout competition is to allow for a structured pre-season competition where we can ensure that we have got the right teams playing in each division. If the CRSC determine that there is a team in the wrong grade after this three week competition then they have the discretion to make changes.

Whilst we are hopeful that no teams will need to default through this competition, should a team default, they will not be deemed in breach of Premier Status as these matches are considered pre-season or grading.

The competition works within each of the two divisions as follows:

Week One: The names of all eight teams in each division are put into a hat. Matches are determined by picking out two names from the hat. The first team picked in each match will be the home team.

Week Two: The four winners in each division go into a hat, and the semi-final matchup would be determined randomly. The same process would then follow for the four losers in week one in each division. The first team picked in each match will be the home team.

Week Three: The winners of the week two matches would play each other in a final. The home team will be determined by pulling names out of a hat.

The winners of the Division One competition will win the Eric Connolly Cup

The winners of the Division Two competition will win the James Gilbert Cup.

The losing teams from week two who make a final in week three won't receive any trophy.

This format guarantees each team two weekends of footy (April 1st & 8th), and half of the teams get a third game on Saturday 15th (Easter Weekend).

Les Mills Colts Knockout Explained

Round One (Paris Memorial Trophy & JRD Cup)

Start: 22 April

Finish: Early/Mid-June

Automatic promotion/relegation of the top two Division Two teams at the end of this round.

Round Two (John E Kelly Memorial Cup & Vic Calcinai Memorial Cup)

Start: Early/Mid-June

Finals: Early/Mid-August

The Colts competition will run continuously and there are no available weekends or break weekends built in for University Holidays or long weekends.