FOR the first time in recent memory, the Newcastle and Hunter Rugby Union finals series has been put back a week after No.2 Sportsground was closed due to wet weather and a suitable alternate venue was not available.
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The qualifying and elimination semi-finals in Premier Rugby and the major and minor semi-finals in the under-18s and women's divisions set down for Saturday and Sunday have been postponed a week.
Fourth grade games scheduled for Townson Oval on Friday night were also postponed.
As a result, the entire finals series has been delayed and the grand final will now be played at No.2 on Saturday, September 28.
The divisional finals at Muswellbrook are continuing as scheduled.
Newcastle City Council closed the ground on Friday afternoon after torrential rain had left the surface waterlogged and unplayable.
The NHRU explored a number of options, including moving to a different venue, playing mid-week and the cancellation of the first round of play-offs, with the higher team progressing.
However, they determined the fairest way, while maintaining the integrity of the competition, was to postpone the finals series by a week.
"If we believed there was a ground that could handle 2500 people, 10 teams and different change rooms, we would have moved the games," NHRU general manager Andy Fairfull told the Newcastle Herald.
"We considered using Marcellin Park. There has been a lot of rain in Maitland too. The oval is not marked and we weren't convinced about the ability to hold the volume of people.
"Even if we were able to get Sunday away, that would have forced mid-week fixtures for the other semis that would have causes issues with the recovery of players and the integrity of the finals. Even it stops raining tomorrow, five games on Sunday would have cut the surface up to a point where council would need 10 to 14 days to repair it. We didn't want to follow the model of other zones in which the higher placed teams progressed. We believed the integrity of the four-week finals needed to be maintained."
The Newcastle Rugby League are also playing finals this weekend, limiting the grounds available to the NHRU.
Maitland Sportsground is hosting the elimination semi-finals on Saturday. The qualifying semi-finals set down for Townson Oval on Sunday are likely to be moved to either St John Oval or Cessnock Sportsground.
The changes, while seemingly unavoidable, have caused dramas for a number of clubs.
Fairfull rejected a suggestion that the financial impact of moving the finals had influenced the board's decision.
"We are positive if we could have moved it, the financial arrangements could have been negotiated to cover everyone's costs," Fairfull said. "Financials didn't come into it."
