Lack of players forces Scots College to pull out of Hurricanes schools final

After fighting through an appeal and counter-appeal to play in the Hurricanes schools rugby final, Scots College ending up defaulting due to a lack of players.

Wellington’s Scots College had beaten Feilding High School 43-35 in the semifinal in Wellington last weekend but the result had been in contention all week.

Initially, Feilding appealed the result and the outcome was overturned, with the game awarded to Feilding.

The dispute was over the number of Scots’ front row players. The game went to uncontested scrums early in the first half as Scots had an injury and did not have sufficient front row reserves.

Scots appealed the disqualification and had it overturned on Thursday.

Feilding then counter-appealed that decision on Friday but it was declined, meaning Scots was due to play Palmerston North Boys’ High School in the final on Saturday.

But Scots defaulted Friday night and Palmerston North Boys’ High School now go straight through to the national finals this coming weekend.

Scots had not commented on the matter during the week, but principal Graeme Yule released a statement on Saturday and said they had defaulted because of injuries from the semifinal.

“This begs the question as to why we defended the complaint from the opposition? There are two factors here.

“Firstly we did not know until [Friday] the final availability of our squad, and secondly we needed to defend the complaint as it questioned the integrity of our coaching staff.

“We were delighted that the findings of the independent committee upheld their actions.”

Yule said it was disappointing, but they always put player safety first.

“I would commend our coaching staff for their brave decision and the care of their players. This is, after all, at the end of the day a game of school rugby, albeit towards the important end of a national competition and not worthy of putting young people’s safety at risk.”

Yule said Scots won the game against Feilding despite having a smaller squad and finishing the game with 14 players.

“Both the complaint and the appeal were dismissed with the college being found in breach of a small technical matter which we accept.”

The school would not comment on the “substantive nature of the complaint other than to reiterate that it was dismissed and the result upheld despite being appealed”.

He would not comment further.