Budweiser Tag Final Stages Explained
As the final stages in venues approach for many, there is an array of different set-ups for these play-offs, depending on the leagues and size of the leagues.
To view the final stages in your league when they are available, use the dropdown menu in the fixtures section where you normally select your own league.
You will see new leagues as options for clicking upon. For example, finals for ‘Mixed Social C Wednesday’ will read ‘Mixed Social C Wednesday Finals’ or ‘Mixed Social C Wednesday Plate Finals’.
Please note that times for Newforge finals are due online on the venue page during the morning of Tuesday, June 24.
Old Belvedere’s fixtures for Mixed Social leagues are now online. Vets finals will be posted online on Thursday, June 26, following their last week of group games.
Eight-Team League
In 8th week, 1st place plays 4th / 2nd plays 3rd. This is the Cup semi-final.
The Plate semi-final is played between 5th and 8th place / 6th and 7th place.
The winners of these games play each other for the respective trophies in the final which is held in the 9th following week. The runners-up play for 3rd and 4th place in each trophy on that day also.
Ten-Team League
Teams in this kind of league play 9 weeks straight with the eventual winner being the team on top of said league’s ladder.
Six-Team League
A six-team league plays five weeks of group games which have in addition a random draw of two more weeks of group games playing against teams they would have played in the previous five.
From the resulting league final standings, a semi-final takes place as follows:
1st place vs 4th / 2nd place vs 3rd for the Cup. 5th and 6th place play each other twice for final two weeks and the team with the highest aggregate score after these two games wins 5th place play-off.
These games can be very close and great fun indeed! Last year, two teams in Old Belvedere played twice and one team won 12-11 one week while the other won 12-11 the next! It was decided on the first team to score a try (golden try). Thrilling stuff!
Five-Team League
In the case of the league being the only five-team league present, then each team will play each other straight through to week 9 and the winner being the eventual team lying on the top of the table.
In the case of there being TWO five team leagues formed from 10 teams (for example, like in Westmanstown’s case), each group game week will have four teams playing each other in league games.
The single team left over in one league in that week’s fixtures plays the left-over team in that league in a friendly game. Every team in each league plays a friendly fixture only once in the season.
When week 8 has completed, each team will have played all their group games and week 9 will consist of straight finals played between 1st v 2nd for the Cup, 3rd and 4th for the Plate and 5th place in Group 1 vs 5th place in Group 2 for the Bowl. A mini Hong Kong Sevens format, if you will.
Vets League (Old Belvedere)
The ‘Top 6’ group (Group 1) will consist of 1st place playing 2nd, 3rd playing 4th and 5th playing 6th in straight finals for week 9.
1st place in Group 2 will play 2nd in their Group and 3rd will play 4th. Same with equivalent places in Group 3. 5th place from Group 2 will play 5th place in Group 3.
Please note that this is a correction from an earlier edition of this webpage which incorrectly included a semi-finals week.