Sideline Sid Sports correspondent & historian www.sunlive.co.nz

People who believe that senior club rugby in the Western Bay of Plenty is dead and buried, will have that myth put to rest, if they try to find a car park outside Blake Park or Maramatanga Park in Te Puna, on Saturday, July 1, 2023.

The Baywide and Western Bay Rugby semi-finals should bring several thousand local rugby fans up close and personal, in sudden-death rugby playoffs.

When the Bay of Plenty Rugby Union instituted Baywide competition in 1990, Rotorua and Eastern Bay of Plenty premier sides reigned supreme, with the Western Bay just bit-players who made up the numbers.

Just Mount Maunganui and Tauranga Sports Baywide titles, in 1993 and 1999 respectively, split the Waikite, Eastern Pirates, Whakatane Marist and Ngongotaha names, on the Baywide silverware in the first decade of competition.

Fast-forward to the present and Western Bay of Plenty sides have a vice-like grip on the Baywide title race. You have to go back to a Whakarewarewa victory in 2006, to find the last time the Bay of Plenty club rugby big prize, spent the summer break outside the confines of the Western Bay of Plenty.

This season, Whakarewarewa made a respectable showing in finishing in fifth place in the qualifying competition, while Ngongotaha and Rotoiti finished ninth and eleventh in the twelve-team title race.

Defending champions Mount Maunganui and 2019 titleholders Te Puna, were locked together at the top of the standings, after the curtain came down on the playoff qualifying series last weekend.

Few who witnessed the Mount Maunganui v Te Puna replay of the 2022 final, on the opening day of the 2023 season, could foresee the impact that the Te Puna 20-6 win would have on determining the minor premiership, eleven rounds down the track.

With Mount Maunganui and Te Puna on 48 points apiece, Bay of Plenty Rugby club rugby administrators, were forced to go to the competition rule-book to find the top qualifier.

The rules stated that "If points are level on the table then the higher team should be determined by the following - who beat who, during the last match played in that competition where points are accumulating".

This jumble of words, saw that Te Puna was the qualifying rounds competition winner and secured the highly coveted top spot, and a potential home final.

Saturday's playoffs see Te Puna host Te Puke Sports, who finished in fourth place, while Mount Maunganui will be at home to Tauranga Sports.

Tauranga Sports will have revenge firmly on their agenda, when they make the short trip over the harbour bridge to Blake Park, after the Mount comprehensively beat Tauranga Sports 41-19 in their round robin game.

Mount Maunganui and Te Puna, can be well pleased with their club performances during the regular season, with each having three teams in semi-final action on Saturday.

Te Puna took the top spot in the Western Bay of Plenty Sub-Union Development/Local Rugby competition, courtesy of nine wins and a draw from ten encounters. They will meet Tauranga Sports in 1pm action at Maramatanga Park with Eastern Districts hosting Mount Maunganui at the Paengaroa Domain.

ED has a big three weeks ahead of their troops. The Western Bay competition, will potentially take centre stage for the next fortnight, before they square up to their biggest challenge of the current season.

Eastern Districts have earned a playoff against the Rotorua local competition winners, with the victor receiving a highly sought after 2023 Baywide berth.

The Blake Park curtain-raiser, will see the Mount Maunganui Colts play Taupo United who play in the BOPRU competition by invitation. Te Puna hosts Greerton Marist in the other Colts semi-final.

It won't get any better than this weekend's Western Bay grassroots rugby with twelve teams chasing a place in the three title deciders in a further seven days time.