Play-offs And Wild-cards - What A Shambles!

By Ian Birks
May 22 2004

Those who have spoken to me about the play-off / wild card and-of-season games will no doubt be aware of my loathing of these moneymaking ‘add-ons’. We are now saddled with play-offs to decide the Champions of England......

... apparently this is an acceptable end to the season provided that your team finishes second or third then goes on to win the final!

I recall when the play offs were first introduced: the big story around that time was the issue of ‘player burnout’. A full premiership season of 22 games plus a domestic knock-out competition, European trophy games and, for some, the prospect of autumn internationals, 6 Nations, summer tours and the odd friendly / Barbarians game thrown in for good measure. Has the season got easier or are the players considerably fitter than they were?

The only thing more ludicrous than this contrived championship decider is the wild card play-offs. As we stand at the moment Leicester will play Gloucester at Twickenham in the last weekend of May, exactly one week after the European Finals have been decided and the final number of places has been determined: the wild card winner qualifies for the Heineken European Cup next year.

Without going into the detail of the different combinations of results of the Parker Pen and HEC Finals either one, or even both, teams could qualify automatically. This would result in the possibility of playing the losing semi-final, or the Lucky Loser team, in the final. Indeed, if Montferrand and Wasps win their respective European trophies, the wild card final will take place between the two losing wild card semi-finalists!

What a shambles!

Sadly, I am not surprised at this end of season fiasco: the organisation, or lack of it, of the pool stages is an now annual event. Even after eight previous competitions, the ability of the ERC to organise these games is woeful. We, the supporters, know which week-end the games will take place, but have to be happy with ‘Fri/Sat/Sun’ until a few weeks before the game takes place and the eventual day and time have been agreed.

The knockout stages are no better: the six pool winners, plus the next two highest scoring teams go through: if you happen to come second in a strong group, the chances are that your HEC campaign will end for that year, while a second placed team in a weak pool will probably qualify: very strange. Eliminate the stronger teams in favour of the weaker!

And then we get to the end of the season, and the last qualifying place is decided by a wild card play-off semi-final and grand final, but none of the four semi-finalist contenders know if they will actually play in the final until the Parker Pen Trophy and Heineken Cup have been decided: whether you win or lose your wild card semi, you still have a chance of playing at Twickenham and qualifying.

So what is the alternative? Simple, let the league position after 22 games determine who qualifies, if you finish in fifth place and a space becomes available because of multiple qualifications, then you play in Europe next year. Everything is sorted as soon as the final whistle goes in the last European final game.

The play-off / wild-card end to the season has been tried for a number of years and it has its fair share of fans in favour and against.

Supporters have paid out more of their hard-earned cash to travel to these games, not necessarily because they support the principal of the play-off, but because they want to support their team.

The end of season play-offs and wild cards prove nothing. They do not demonstrate that the winners are either deserving English Champions after a 22 game season nor do they provide more worthy competitors to enter the HEC for the following year: with very few exceptions, this has already been decided by ultimate league position.

Please, lets just drop these pointless games.