Oxfordshire RFU

Dear All,

The CB board spoke with Steve Grainger at a meeting last week. We asked him a range of questions that clubs asked us to. Please find below Steves open answers for you:

Note from Steve:
We have rebooted the non-contact rugby offer, we have come close to getting the game restarted but the Chief Medical Officer has stopped it. They are calling the shots. The other challenges are government restrictions (spectators, travel, clubhouses etc.). Travel is also an issue; clubs on the border (Warwickshire etc.) have issues due to Covid tiers. The plea is from us is to carry on and lets hope things improve.

Questions to Steve Grainger

1. What is the RFUs plans if there is a 3rd lockdown in January, Will we go back to stage D / E or remain at stage F. Are we going to stage F ‪after the 18th December‬ or are we staying at stage E which states in the RFU road map only 2 x 10minutes of contact. If the RFU want clubs to start playing the adaptive game from the 19th then surely the clubs would need to be ready for 80 minutes contact, which would mean full sessions of contact training not 2 x 10 minutes.‬

Answers to Q1 from Steve Grainger
A. If there is another national lockdown it will depend on the government restrictions. We are reliant on whether the government states we can play. B. Stage F is full contact, 15 aside as we know them. Stage F is back to normal. Stage E is a variance of the 15 aside against other clubs. We will stay at Stage E.C. Contact at training, when we got approval to come back we were all told we had to further in training, which is where the 10 min rules came from. This is the amount of close contact we have. In drills you are probably not in close contact for more than 5 seconds at a time so 20 tackle drills would probably only take up a minute. It will be unlikely you would top over those 10 minutes unless you were doing a lot of detailed ruck work. RFU will try and explain this better. D. The RFU does not want games played by 19th; it is up to clubs if they want to play. It gives flexibility to those that want to. Matches do not have to be 80 minutes, they can be 40 minutes for example or 3 x 20 min matches with breaks.

2. What funding will be made available to clubs if we are forced to close again and forego match day income for longer? Particularly in view of the RFU 2020 accounts showing a positive cash flow of £38.5m at the end of 2019/20 and in light of the recent government cash injection of £135million.

Answers to Q2 from Steve Grainger
A. The RFU has a debt position of 75 million; cash of £35 million is not cash for distribution. The RFU works on a 4-year cycle. The money is not sitting ready to be given out, it is planned to pay off debt, which they get into over a 4-year cycle. The £135million from the government (up to) is phenomenal. This revenue is to purely account for the fact that the RFU could not have spectators this year and it will be assessed tightly before being given out as it is government money. Meetings with the government continue to determine how it can be distributed. £59 million has been allocated to premiership clubs – this was not RFU decision but government decision. £44 million is allocated against RFU losses. Some of the £44 million will be used to support the community game. It is not the RFU fault that spectators cannot attend games and that we are not operating as we were pre-Covid – these are government restrictions.

3.When will the RFU announce details of how clubs can access the government funding? Loans are not the answer and indeed just push the problem further down the line to Grass roots.

Answer to Q3 from Steve Grainger
A. We do not know yet, the RFU are in dialogue with the government. Sport England will probably distribute to RFU to then pass to clubs. It is likely to be means tested and is likely to be designed to stop clubs going under. If there are clubs that would literally go under in the meantime the CB can raise a case to the RFU for funding sooner. The desire is to stop clubs going under. Please contact the CB if you are a club with a desperate financial issue.

4. What are the RFUs and Steve’s plans to reach out to grass roots over the coming months to rebuild the game and bridges.

Answer to Q4 from Steve Grainger
A. We have been working hard to get support packages out there. We will be doing more Zoom / Teams etc. and can have direct dialogue as required through CBs. General comment was that clubs seem a lot closer now, closer than ever. In Oxfordshire CB we have a WhatsApp group for chairmen and a regular Chairman’s meeting monthly which has been a big positive especially for smaller clubs. Everyone feels inclusive.

5. Prior to Covid 19 did the RFU have a plan to how they would respond to a pandemic e.g. Influenza? And based on the Covid pandemic, what steps are being taken by the RFU as part of their recovery plan, should a similar event happen in the future.

Answer to Q5 from Steve Grainger
A. No we didn’t have a plan in place to deal with a pandemic. We did look at insurance a few years ago for a pandemic and the prices of the premiums were exponentially high despite never having had a pandemic at that time. The premium was millions and was not financially viable. We will not be spending time and resources to plan for another one, is not viable time or finance wise. We will look at lessons learned. It has taught us the delicate nature of our business models. Despite diversifying revenues we still have a huge reliance on big games each year (England Senior men’s team). Taking this down to club level the reliance is often still on the home matches. Diversification of revenue going forward is something for clubs to look at and focus on.

6. Will clubs have to complete and submit payment of player’s declarations this season?

Answer to Q6 from Steve Grainger
A. No they will not be needed this season.

7. Would the societies get any funding from the RFU / CBs or from the RRFU?

Answer to Q7 from Steve Grainger
A. The immediate support fund the CB holds can be used for referee’s societies. This is not to top money or revenues up; it should be used when needed. This is emergency support.

8. We can’t have scrums and mauls for obvious reasons at the moment but this doesn’t make the game attractive to the forward players. Has the RFU had any thought on how we will retain these players going forward?

Answers to Q8 from Steve Grainger
A. Biggest fear is particularly the front row players; we need those players in the game. Big plea is to keep the players involved. SG will share a piece on how we can keep and develop skills for those players - this will be shared to clubs in due course. Lineouts have to be a minimum of 5 players to help provide a little bit of purpose to help. The RFU share this concern.

In addition Steve Grainger confirmed that accrediations had been extended. Dave Stubley is leading on this area.

If you have any further comments to make following these Q and As please contact me.

Best wishes

Karen
Oxfordshire RFU - Secretary