Down to “the bare bones”, Murchison have pulled out of senior rugby, relinquishing the chance to defend the division two championship they have won for the past two years.
With just 13 players committing at the start of the 2014 season, club president and coach Tony Peacock says the writing was on the wall. “It’s very disappointing. We’ve lost a lot of players from last year through retirement, injuries, guys moving away, but we just lost too many,” he says. “We just couldn’t get the numbers.”
Murchison played just one game in the first three rounds of the Car Company division two competition, a 39-27 loss to Collingwood away. Tony says a school kid and a former player now living in Ashburton made one-off appearances to support the team. “A couple of weeks out from the start of the season we knew we’d be struggling, but then we had a couple more injuries which didn’t help. The writing was on the wall from the start.”
The announcement is a huge blow for the club which had experienced its best ever years since forming back in 1906. Tony says Murchison has fielded a team in division two ever since 2006, having played in the now-defunct division three since 1995. It had previously entered in the Buller Rugby Union competition, and a Motueka-Golden Bay championship before that. After winning the competition over the past two years, coaches Mike Huxford and D’Arcy Grooby stood down, ending their spells on a high. Tony was set to take over, but will now have to wait an entire season before getting a shot. Tony says some of the senior players are likely to register with Tapawera, Wanderers or Marist now, and although the numbers were low in junior rugby, the club was committed to having another successful junior season by continuing its relationship with Tapawera. “This will be a huge loss for the town but hopefully it encourages people to support us more next year.”
