Rugby’s COVID comp a winner
THE coronavirus shutdown has proven a nightmare for nearly every sporting code but it also presents a rare opportunity to experiment with the configuration of a season.
The chance to craft something exciting and new is especially clear for rugby union because the 2020 Super Rugby and international seasons have little hope of being resurrected.
At the grassroots level, the pandemic stands to rob the class of 2020 of their final chance to showcase school pride on the sporting field.
The Gold Coast’s Associated Public School (APS) and the Associated Independent College (AIC) rugby competitions have stopped, while the Greater Public Schools (GPS) and The Associated Schools (TAS) seasons also face the gallows.
For the first time in recent memory Queensland’s schoolboy rugby calendar could perfectly align, meaning a statewide rugby championship, played later in the year, could finally be feasible.
Such a tournament could see the 24 schools from the aforementioned competitions join Queensland’s top regional schools and the non-traditional schools that contest the Ballymore Cup in the most ambitious tournament in the state’s rugby history.
The road map to a tournament of this scale has been charted over 40 years by rugby league’s celebrated Confraternity Carnival, where 48 participating schools are sorted into three divisions for a weeklong festival of sport.
In the top division, the nine GPS schools, led by champions The Southport School, would be joined by their AIC equivalent Marist College Ashgrove and the best of the rest from that competition.
In the second division, the Gold Coast’s Somerset College, King’s Christian College and All Saints Anglican could meet Downlands College, Sunshine Coast Grammar School and Ambrose Treacy College for the chance to earn promotion into the top division the following season.
In the third, developing rugby schools like Saint Stephen’s and Coomera Anglican could play off against teams of similar ability.
The alternative would be to let the students’ final school seasons slip away entirely.