Most of you will by now have seen the RFU announcement of Friday 30th October, cancelling the Adult Competitive Leagues for the rest of the season. I doubt that it will have come as a surprise to anyone, given where we are with the pandemic. The Club Committee, together with our senior coaches for Men’s Women’s and AgeGrade rugby have discussed this announcement and together we wanted to share our views with the whole Club. We know how important rugby is to all of you. We understand the positive benefits, both physical and mental, of coming together on the pitch with your mates to play the game. We share your deep frustration that the Government and Local Authority restrictions prevent us from enjoying our Clubhouse in the way that we want; coming together to enjoy rugby.
The Club will continue to review government guidance with regard to social spaces and club house activity. We still aspire to organising social events for players, teams, age-groups and Members once restrictions have been eased. We will continue to do everything we can to provide rugby on the pitch in whatever form we are allowed, within the tiered arrangements or local actions that are imposed on all of us. Training numbers have increased, year on year, which is the strongest possible signal that we all intend to carry on as much as is humanly possible.
The RFU announcement is not all doom and gloom. Work has already been done to define competitive local clusters of clubs, in much the same way as for the Ready4Rugby programme recently started for Men’s and Women’s rugby, and planned for age-grade rugby very soon. Participation will be optional. There is also work underway at the RFU to define law variations, acceptable to Government, which will allow a form of full-contact, competitive rugby this season. Age grade Sunday rugby has already been adapted with staggered timings and frequent sanitising; we expect this to continue until Government advice changes. As you can imagine, revenues are significantly down with as the clubhouse and bar are closed and we have little expectation of sponsorship income or international ticket sales. We are more reliant than ever on membership subscriptions being paid on time. In the meantime, we have made some difficult decisions to limit our spending, mainly on premises and the rugby budget.
We would like to acknowledge the immense generosity of those members who found themselves in a position to help out. A number of you kindly made donations to the club in the past few months, for which we are truly grateful. We want to create a pro-active group in the Club to listen to what our players and Members want, and to take action on their behalf. As Committee Members and Coaches we will do the best we can for you. There will be more news on this in due course. The Club will continue to operate for any form of rugby allowed in the current environment, and we are committed to playing as much as we can at all levels. The Club needs your support, now more than ever before. And the Club needs to support you and your families too, more than ever before.
Stay safe.
On behalf of the Committee and Coaches Eddie
Eddie Keal Chairman,
Ruislip RFC
chairman@ruisliprfc.co.uk