RFU Council met on Friday, 9th February. As previously mentioned Ted Atkinson was deployed to Newcastle to represent the Union at the England v Wales U20 game. Mike Smith (President, YRFU) acted as alternate to Ted at the meeting. The next meeting of Council is on Friday, 20th April. There is also a meeting of Community Game Board planned for Thursday, 15th March
RFU Council – as always this was a busy meeting
lasting from 11:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m.
with lots of information and debate.
Brief highlights are :
·
As you will
have read in the Press, Eddie Jones has agreed an extension to his contract
which was due to expire after the World Cup in 2019. The main aim of the
extension until 2021 is to manage succession of a new coach.
·
Sue Day, a
former England International, will join the RFU at the end of March as Chief
Financial Officer in succession to Steven Brown.
·
Changes have
been made to the Local Delivery Teams with the WRDO, URDO and PDO posts being
made redundant. However, new opportunities have been put in place with University
Partnership Manager and Officers, Player Pathways Manager and Officers and Age
Grade Rugby Manager, Match Official Development Officers and a Rugby Growth
Assistant being created. More information will be disseminated as it becomes
known.
·
East Stand – is
now beginning the fit out stage with both fire prevention and terrorism
prevention being taken into consideration.
The Rugby Museum, which was closed has now re-opened in the South Stand
and represents the leading rugby resource in the World.
·
General Data
Protection Regulations (GDPR) come into force shortly and the RFU will
communicate to CBs and clubs regarding their responsibilities to this.
·
CBRE and the
RFU are working together to formulate a rolling 10 year plan for refurbishment
of Twickenham Stadium. This is to ensure that we have a state of the art
stadium that meets the requirements of the 21st century and is also
world leading in terms of Health and Safety for both employees and spectators
alike.
·
Draft
Regulations for Payment of Players were placed before Council. These now go
forward to Governance before being brought back for final approval in April.
Council decided that the supplemental ticket fund be included in the RFU
Benefits that will be withdrawn if clubs declare they are paying players (at
level 6 and below). The supplemental ticket fund is drawn from tickets that
clubs send back to Twickenham and are then re-sold. The fund is then shared
between member clubs.
·
Nominations
panel put forward their recommendations for senior posts in the Union for
season 2018/19. These are :
President Chris Kelly (ERFSU)
Senior Vice President Peter Wheeler
Junior Vice President HHJ Jeff Blackett (Co-Opted)
Immediate Past President John Spencer
Congratulations are
offered to all those named above
·
The Diversity
and Inclusion Working Group, under the Chairmanship of Genevieve Glover, has
had its first meeting. As many will know
Sally Burns is a member of this group and was selected from a wide ranging and
extensive group who made applications to join the Working Party. We
congratulate Sally on her selection and hope she enjoys her time on the Working
Group.
Ticketing – this was raised at RFU Council but
demands a separate section in this report. You will remember that the International
Rugby Ticketing Sub-Committee (IRTSC) has been conducting a long term review of
ticketing at Twickenham. This has included:
·
Establishing
the Supplemental Ticketing Fund
·
Categorisation
of Twickenham fixtures
·
Re-categorising
the stadium seating
The final part of the work is to examine how tickets are distributed
to the game and the Sub-Committee are currently working on this. 50% of tickets
for each international are released to the Game and early indications are that clubs will receive
a base allocation based on the level they play at. Additional tickets will then
be allocated based on the number of fixtures a club fulfils at U14 and above
(both male and female games). The IRTSC intends to consult with clubs about the
proposals and meetings will be held commencing in April. The RFU have just announced that meetings will take place in Billingham (16th April) and Doncaster (17th April) lasting from 6:30 p.m. until 9:30 p.m. You will be able to sign up for these meetings via a link in the next Community Game Update (due 02/03/18)
One further note is that the RFU are currently planning warm up games
for the 2019 RWC (possibly against Italy) and it is very likely that one of
these games will be held in Manchester.
RFU Cups - Congratulations to all three of our Representatives in their respective Cups (Intermediate, Senior Vase and Junior Vase) who were all successful in their Quarter Final clashes. We look forward to supporting York, Wath upon Dearne and Old Otliensians when the Semi Final draw is announces.
Activities in February
(Jim Chapman)
Date
|
|
03
|
Committee Dinner – Italy v England (Rome)
|
04
|
Italy v England (Rome)
|
09
|
RFU Council (Twickenham)
|
10
|
England Women v Wales Women (Twickenham Stoop)
England v Wales (Twickenham)
|
20
|
Women’s Championship Review Group (by Telephone)
Central District Sub-Committee (Pontefract RUFC)
|
23
|
Scotland Women v England Women (Scotstoun Stadium)
|
24
|
Scotland v England (Murrayfield)
|
27
|
YRFU Change Implementation Group (Wetherby)
|
28
|
Yorkshire West Sub-Committee (Old Crossleyans) - Postponed
|
Activities in February
(Ted Atkinson)
Date
|
|
01
|
Travel back from Twickenham
|
03
|
Travel to Rome
|
04
|
Italy v England (Rome)
|
05
|
Travel home from Rome
|
08/09
|
England U20s vs Wales (Newcastle Falcons)
|
10/11
|
England v Wales (Twickenham)
|
19
|
Central District Sub-Committee (Pontefract)
|
23
|
Travel to Edinburgh
|
24
|
Scotland v England (Murrayfield)
|
25
|
Travel home
|
28
|
Yorkshire West Sub-Committee (Old
Crossleyans) - Postponed
|
Jim Chapman & Ted Atkinson
February 2018
