Ponsonby in Otago competition
ALL the usual suspects will roll up today for the start of a short and sharp Otago club season.
The three Dunedin clubs — defending champion University, Kia Toa and the South Pacific Raiders — will front up for 60minute games every Saturday over the next five weeks.
From the north will come the Waitaki Warriors, eager to be involved again.
The fifth club is Ponsonby.
Wait, what?
You read that right. Ponsonby — the Auckland club, better known for being one of the glamour rugby union clubs — will field a team in the Otago rugby league competition this year.
The Ponsonby Ponies will fly down and back four times, and return for the grand final if they make it.
‘‘It’s a fairly big ask for them but they are super keen,’’ Otago Rugby League chairman Ricki Allan said.
‘‘They’ve got the resources and the players and the desire to be involved.
‘They’re one of the longeststanding rugby league clubs in the country, and they didn’t want to fold if they couldn’t find a competition.’’
Allan understood Ponsonby had ‘‘some issues’’ with Auckland Rugby League and was not able to field a team in the local grade.
‘‘They were looking for a competition to join.
‘‘Otago Rugby League, for whatever reason, was seen as one of the viable options, I think because of our season window.
Ponsonby nearly joined the Otago competition last year, and played a preseason game in Dunedin, but was stymied by a Covid breakout.
‘‘They stayed in touch, and kept floating the idea,’’ Allan said.
‘‘They were keen, and about a month ago said, ‘Yep, we’re keen to jump on board if you will have us.’
‘‘There’s an exPonsonby guy living in Dunedin who has also helped with the link.’’
Allan expected the Ponies would be bigger, and have more pure league nous, across the board than the southern clubs.
‘‘They will have genuine league players, where a lot of our teams are at least half union converts.’’
The bad old days of toxic relations between the rugby codes are a distant memory.
Otago league has scheduled its short season to give Dunedin rugby players, whose season is nearly finished, a chance to keep playing an ovalball game for longer.
‘‘We’re squeezing it in the best we can to avoid a clash with rugby. Most of the league boys are also keen on playing union.
‘‘This way, we hope to get a few more union boys come to give league a try.
‘‘We’ve already picked up some boys from Zingari and Southern who are finished rugby for the season and keen to play some league for a while.’’
Last year, Otago played regular league rules, but this season it has been decided to shorten games to 60 minutes so each team can play two games at the Kensington Oval every Saturday.
The club season will be followed by an Otago Whalers campaign.