Illawarra rugby outlines plans moving forward following Uni withdrawal

UOW Rugby Club spokesperson Canio Fierravanti said the decision wasn't taken lightly but the Mallee Bulls had little choice but to withdraw from the 2024 competition.

Fierravanti said a number of issues from a lack of players to duty of care meant UOW had to make the difficult decision to pull out of the first-grade competition for the first time in its 60-year history.

"We had a large number of players, probably around 20 of first grade quality, who didn't return this season for one reason or another," he said.

"We've also had a lot of injuries, which definitely didn't help matters.

"We've always been a student-led club but it's fair to say now that pretty much all of our players are students.

"We have a duty of care to protect these young players."

Fierravanti said COVID and in more recent times, cost of living issues, had made recruiting and retaining players extremely difficult.

"A lot of our former and current players are students and they are impacted by cost of living," he said.

"They have to work a lot of weekends. When you are a young student and you get offered weekend work you are going to take it rather than playing rugby. We understand that.

"But as a result we have less players and more importantly less players of first-grade quality.

"We have a duty of care to our young players, whose average age I'd say is only about 21.

"One of the challenges we always have is retaining players. Being a university club our players are mainly students and students come and go.

"It didn't help last year that we finished last in first and second grade.

"Many of our players were sick of losing and chose not to return unfortunately.

"So all these factors combined made it necessary to pull out but it was still a tough decision to take, especially as it is our first year in our 60-year history that we aren't playing first grade."

Fierravanti said the plan was to follow the example of Wollongong Vikings who dropped down to second grade for a season before rebuilding and returning back to the top grade this year.

"That is also our plan," he said.

"From Illawarra Rugby's perspective, they've been very understanding and supportive of our situation. We are working with them in terms of player recruitment and rebuilding with the hope of being back in first grade in 2025."

All clubs met on Monday night to decide the best way forward for the 2024 season, in light of the withdrawal of the University of Wollongong Rugby Club from the IDRU first grade competition.

In a media statement IDRU president Tom Ellicott said after reviewing alternatives and considerable discussion, the decision was taken to maintain the current draw for 2024, with all first grade games against UOW to be recorded as a bye to the opposing team.

"This means the eight first grade sides will have two byes in each round leading to the finals' series," he said.

"All sides agreed this is the best way forward for the 2024 season.

"UOW will continue to play in the second-grade competition while working towards recruiting players moving towards season 2025."

Uni's withdrawal comes after Avondale pulled out of the competition at the beginning of the season, citing discontent with the introduction of a new points system to the rules of the IDRU competition.