Winter Rose were unable to compete in the South Eastern District Rugby Union (Sedru) league final after a minor car accident.
Winter Rose were unable to compete in the South Eastern District Rugby Union (Sedru) league final after a minor car accident.
St Marks were announced the winners at last weekend's final match, after the Winter Rose team failed to arrive and the referee declared the match a walk over. St Marks were awarded full points.
Despite the Eastern Province Rugby Board's knowledge of the crash, the game will not be rescheduled.
Jaap Claasen, an Eastern Province Rugby Board representative, was adamant that there was no way the game could be rescheduled as they needed to finish their league and refused to make any further comment.
Partrick Mengu from the Eastern Rugby Board says he was made aware of the crash but now everyone had moved on and nothing could be done. Mfundo Manyati, Winter Rose Coach commented on the poor cards his team was dealt.
“We had a game in hand so we thought we would be on a level playing field with St Marks.
"We were confident we could win and top the league considering that we beat them convincingly earlier this year,” he said.
The last time the two teams played, Winter Rose beat St Marks with a bonus point. On the decision to award St Marks full points and call the game a forfeit Manyati said, “As a club we are used to decisions like that.
"We could write a letter of complaint but the letter would go straight to the people who made the decision in the first place, so there is no point.”
Winter Rose suffered a car crash on their way to play their last fixture of the season against St Marks. Fortunately, none of the players were hurt in the collision, but they were also unable to get to their game.
St Marks finished with 58 points, Swallows finished second with 54 points and Winter Rose finished third with 53 points.
