By Daniel Gilks
An administrative error has cheated York Rugby Club of promotion this season. The club has lost out on back to back promotions after YorkSport failed to register a crucial victory which would have seen York win the league by a clear 3 points.
Vision has discovered that, despite ending the season on equal points with Sheffield Hallam, due to eccentricities of the BUCS system the UYRUFC will not receive a chance to compete in a promotion playoff.
After midweek fixtures Sheffield Hallam and York remained tied at the top of their league with a game in hand each. The final Sheffield Hallam game, against Sheffield University was abandoned due to bad weather, giving both teams zero points. However, the final York game resulted in a walkover to York after their opponent, Northumbria, failed to put a team together. This should have resulted in a three point win for York.
Disappointingly this result will not be accepted by BUCS as it was registered with them 63 minutes late by YorkSport after difficulties contacting Northumbria to determine the cause of the walkover.
This left York and Sheffield Hallam tied at the top of the table with 31 points. The two teams are then separated by their head to head results leaving Sheffield Hallam top of the table.
Rugby Club Captain Alex Redshaw conceded that the head to head results method was a “fair” way to deal with tied league situations but went on to express his disappointment over the loss against Sheffield Hallam on which the league results have been decided. Unfortunately this doesn’t get away from the fact that York should have been three points clear at the top.
Redshaw reflected that “the team showed a lot of character to win the league after the Sheffield Hallam loss” and have a point to prove next year. He then demonstrated his confidence in the team repeating this season’s form next year: ‘The Rugby Club has good strength in depth and should be able to make a positive start to the league next year’.
Redshaw was naturally guarded about mentioning any potential successors to his own post. However, with elections scheduled for Thursday week 8 the next man to lead York Rugby through the minefield of the BUCS system will soon be revealed.