1 December 1995 Old Clubs Merge For Future In Senior Rugby Competition

Christchurch's second and third oldest rugby clubs – Lincoln and Merivale are to merge.

Founded in 1881 and 1882 respectively, the two clubs have, in recent years, been battling diminishing pools of senior players, a problem which forced both of them out of representation in Christchurch's Senior Competition this past season.

"With Lincoln it's been the result of a changing age pattern among our students," says club president Denis Elvidge.

"In the days when Lincoln first went to town to be part of the Canterbury Rugby Union's competition, and in the years which followed, the average age of our rugby-playing students was older than it is now.

"The situation really came to a head in 1993 when there were simply not enough tight five forwards of suitable maturity to justify a senior side, so we pulled out. We weren't prepared to use our fellows as cannon fodder and there's no joy in getting whacked by 50 or 60 points every Saturday."

Aware that without being able to offer the attraction of places in a senior team, the club would progressively lose players to city sides which could offer such continuity, Lincoln saw itself staring down the barrel of survival and viability.

"Although our age-group teams had a great season, you can't survive forever playing under-19 rugby," says club captain Peter Jarvis. "You have to offer something for players to aspire to. And you have to give them a platform from which they can compete for provincial and national honours."

In the city, facing a similar dilemma, but caused by different reasons, was Merivale Rugby Football Club. It's seniors problem stemmed from a loss of budding players to high school sides and then their subsequent affiliation to other Christchurch clubs.

From a position of pride in being able to offer a true family atmosphere and an unbroken progression of playing opportunities – from age 5 to over 45, as Patron Darby Monroe puts it – Merivale, like Lincoln, saw its dwindling senior ranks as heralding a lame duck future unless urgent and innovative action was taken.

In the best tradition of rugby business-broking, the mutual problems of the two old clubs came up over a social hour beer. From the common ground they shared, the idea of a merger arose almost naturally. Helping the process was the fact that many ex-Lincoln players had served in Merivale's administrative ranks over the years – people like Jock Fulton, Lincoln graduate and part-time lecturer who is Merivale's current Senior Coach, and Stew Pittaway, another Lincoln graduate and lecturer, who is a past Senior Coach with the club.

From the informality of a social hour discussion, serious negotiating between the two clubs started about six months ago and the concept of a merger was put to both sets of members. Agreement was unanimous and a constitution was drawn up. Merivale will have to confirm it at a special general meeting and Lincoln will do so at its AGM in March.

The new combined club will be based at Merivale's headquarters at Nunweek Park, Wooldridge Road. Over the years Lincoln has never had a "headquarters" of its own so this is seen as a real bonus to the amalgamation.

Merivale has 2.2 acres of freehold land at Nunweek Park with five full playing fields, three floodlit training fields and modern facilities.

Out at Lincoln there are seven playing fields and these will continue to be used – the venue for each week's games being decided by the Canterbury union, not the individual clubs.

Seeing the merger of the two clubs as the opening of a new era in local rugby and the chance for players to be part of history in the making, Merivale board chairman Logan Niederer emphasizes the similarity of the "culture" between the two clubs and says "both our histories, as the second and third oldest clubs in Christchurch, will now stand side by side."

"By joining with Lincoln we will have the age and membership structure for getting back to the true traditional family club which players can join and play for from primary school age through to golden oldies.

"The club will be there to give both sets of players what they want – the environment, the training facilities, the playing style – and ultimately to encourage people to play to their full potential."

Both clubs are emphatic about the need to nurture players at this time of turbulence within the rugby world.

"We're going through all this professionalism business at the moment and the game has become so elitist that there are good players around who wonder why they're putting in the effort – they're wondering if they would be better off going windsurfing or something,” says Jock Fulton.

"We want to create an environment to allow these players to excel.

"We want players to forget all the peripheral bullshit surrounding professionalism and enjoy playing for a club and for the sake of the game.

"No club in Christchurch can afford to pay players, so we've somehow got to get back to the club/team spirit where you've got people striving for the good of the game based on enjoyment rather than anything else. But you've also got to give them the opportunity to take their talents as far as they can. That's why the provision of Senior Team opportunities is so important.

“Amalgamation is the way we both see it. It will ensure we both survive.”

Selection from the pool of Lincoln-Merivale players will be entirely on merit – not on any quota basis, and the new club will be calling for coaches and managers soon.

Amalgamation with Merivale won't affect Lincoln's rights to participate in the important New Zealand Universities round of tournaments.

Lincoln's Denis Elvidge sees the heart of the amalgamation as a bringing together of the Merivale players' age and experience with Lincoln's youth. It will be a strong combination, he says.

The club has already set its target for next season – to win its way through to the first division of the city competition. At the moment Merivale is in the second division and Lincoln in the third.

"If we can lift ourselves into the first division that will provide a real incentive for senior players to join us in the '97 season and beyond," says Logan Niederer. "We'll be able to offer them the excitement of first division rugby and of course our younger age group players will have something definite to aspire to."

Merivale entered the Senior Competition in 1884, so its association stretches right back to the second year of the club's existence. Combining with other clubs is also in its history. During the war years of 1939-45 Merivale combined, through lack of players, first with Christchurch and later with Albion and Sydenham.

Although the immediate postwar years were lean ones for membership and resources, by the time of Merivale's 75th jubilee in 1957 the club was fielding 18 teams, and had a pool of approximately 300 players. At the time of the centenary in 1982 it was fielding 21 teams and in recent times it has had as many as 28 teams on the paddock. The impact of the declining membership situation is shown by the number of teams fielded this year – only 12.

Over the years the club has had 10 All Blacks, 110 Canterbury representatives and 17 South Island representatives. In competitions it has won 21 Senior Championships, 59 Open Grade Championships and 47 Junior titles.

For its part, Lincoln has always drawn on a smaller potential membership, determined by the size of the student body. But even when there were only 600-odd students at the then Lincoln College the club was able to field a solid number of teams. For example, in the College's centennial year of 1978 it fielded 15 teams.

The senior championship situation is a difficult one to define for Lincoln as the club's history spans competition involvement under two bodies – Ellesmere Sub-Union until the mid-1960s and CRFU since then.

Under the CRFU, Lincoln obtained senior status in 1964 and five years later won the Senior Competition and the Harewood Trophy. It repeated that success in 1981, a vintage year for the side as it brought home both the Trust Bank Cup and the Trust Bank Trophy (then the CSB Cup and Trophy).

Newspaper reports described it as the club's "proudest moment" and a "magnificent double". It was the first team to take the two major Christchurch trophies in the one season since they had been introduced five years earlier. As well the side won "The Press" Cup for the best and fairest senior side.

Since 1981 Lincoln has not won any Senior Championships in the city competition, principally because of the high rate of turnover of players (as they complete their studies and move on) and the relative inexperience of the team as a unified combination which this constant movement perpetuates.

However, Lincoln claims with pride connections with 18 All Blacks who have passed through the college and played rugby there during their student days. This includes Wilson Whineray, Kel Tremain and Andy Dalton – all All Black captains in their time.

Similarly the club has a rich list of over 60 Canterbury provincial representatives and has had current or former students in New Zealand Universities, NZ Maori All Blacks, NZ Juniors and NZ Colts sides.

It's a club with an immensely proud tradition and a glittering array of rugby personalities illuminating its story. One of them, Canterbury's Sir James Stewart, has said this of the club's contribution to rugby:

"The Lincoln club's main achievement, and nothing is more important than this, is the constant stream of players who in subsequent years have played at all levels throughout New Zealand, from club to provincial and national teams.

"It is only wishful thinking, that if they could have stayed on for four or five more years after their studies, Lincoln could have had one of the great club sides of the country! But that matters little compared to the contribution the club has made to the personal development of the hundreds of young men for whom membership has been an important part of their lives."

The precise name of the new club is yet to be settled.

Ian Collins, Journalist, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand.