WELTEC CHAMPIONSHIP
CAPITAL GROWTH
The Wellington competition has been expanded, making it potentially a tougher title to win.
AS THE WELTEC First XV Premiership expands from eight to 10 teams this season, the question of whether the expansion is a positive thing will have to wait to be answered.
On one hand, there is the danger that the referee’s calculator may come out, yet some see the short term pain of imbalance has to be beneficial for the competition as a whole.
Voice of SKY Sport’s First XV coverage and Scots College old boy Ken Laban was an advocate of the expansion. “By increasing it to 10 teams, two teams could increase their quality and it can be seen as a success,” he reasoned. Others too had opined in the past that the Wellington competition was too small.
While the top of the competition is an alternating arm wrestle year-on-year and will continue to be, time will tell how those that make the top grade through qualification fare.
Expansion worries aside, what can be assured is the defending champions having a fight on their hands to retain the title. Wellington College coach Lincoln Rawles has his eyes wide open when it comes to the opposition.
“Silverstream had a young side [in 2016] and should be strong. They could have up to 15-plus returning,” he says.
There was an overwhelming groundswell of support for Silverstream’s chances and Laban was clear in his pick: “They [Silverstream] will start as favourites.”
Similar sentiments also came from Scots College head coach Sam Rasch who saw the potential of Silverstream to go up a notch in 2017. And, after Rongotai advanced in the quarterfinals last season, he rated them as one of the dark horse possibilities. “Rongotai and Wairarapa will be ones to look for. They’ve had good numbers to their trainings and are in a similar boat to us as we had young squads last year.”
St Pat’s Town will no doubt have something to say and, besides having a veritable mortgage on an annual top four spot, have a 1-1 finals record in the last two editions.
The strength of their rugby system and succession planning will be put to the test but with the likes of Xavier English and Keelan Whitman in the pack, they too have the foundation to go deep in 2017.