RFU Council met on Friday, April 20th. As part of the
Community Game Board Update, Jim Chapman gave a presentation on the work of the
Competitions Development Sub-Committee which he chairs.
As noted below the next meeting of Community Game Board will be held
on3rd May in Dublin as part of a 4 Home Nations Community Conference.
The next meeting of RFU Council is on 8th June which will
also incorporate the AGM (see below)
Community Game Board – for the first time ever the Community
Game Board will meet in Ireland on Thursday, 3rd May. Prior to that
a meeting will be held, attended by representatives from the 4 Home
Nations. When first mooted the IRFU
agreed to host the meeting with the hope that it will become an annual event,
moving around the Home Nations on a rotational basis. There will be more news next month on what
was discussed but the agenda currently contains items regarding the National
Rugby Survey (which is also carried out in Ireland, Wales and Scotland) which
will bring out current issues of concern that are common across the whole of
rugby in the Home Nations
RFU Council – brief headlines were :
·
Deborah Griffin (W & G) was elected to World Rugby. As you may
have seen in the press World Rugby have increased their size but this was on
the proviso that new members had to be female.
Deborah is also a Board Member at the RFU. It is likely that Deborah
will relinquish her Women’s and Girls representative role on RFU Council, thus
leaving a vacancy.
·
Sue Day – has now taken over as Chief
Financial Officer. As well as being a
Chartered Accountant Sue represented England Women and is an active member at
Wasps FC.
·
RFU AGM – will take place on Friday, 8th
June at Cowdray Hall, Cavendish Square, W1. It will commence at 5:00 p.m.
Please note that the Calling Papers for the AGM will, for the first time, be
sent out electronically. Please tell your club Secretary to look out for these
(approx. 1 month before the meeting) as they will contain details of how to
register a proxy vote. As always, we would recommend that as many clubs as
possible register a proxy vote (if not attending), either Jim or Ted will be
happy to take these along to the meeting to register them and vote accordingly.
·
East Stand – despite significant difficulties
encountered during the building of the East Stand it is anticipated that it
will be completed on 28th Sept and will be available during the
Autumn Internationals. The refurbished East Stand will include enhanced
hospitality facilities and will allow the RFU to bring all hospitality “in
house” offering a first class experience.
·
RWC Warm Up Games – one of the World Cup Warm Up games
(against Italy) next year will be located at St James Park, Newcastle. Details are currently being finalised and we
will keep you updated as information is released
·
Autumn Internationals 2018 – ticket prices for these games will be
released by the end of April once they have been agreed by the RFU Board. It is
expected that tickets for the game vs New Zealand will attract a premium price
as they will be hotly sought after, whereas tickets for the Japan game will be
very attractively priced and readily available
·
Supplemental Pot – as you will be aware the difference
between the Entitlement price and Full price of tickets is placed into the so
called “Supplemental Pot”. On an annual basis this is then distributed to
clubs. This year it is expected that each club (voting) will receive £1020.
Clubs should receive this in June.
·
England v Barbarians – this game takes place as part of the “Counties”
day at Twickenham which sees the culmination of both the Bill Beaumont Cup and
Gill Burn’s Women’s County championship.
This year a number of tickets will be made available to each CB (County)
for distribution amongst volunteers at £10 per. ticket (sadly, travel and accommodation
are not included). Again, we will give further details once these are known.
International
Ticketing Roadshow/Health of the Game - sadly this event, held on
April 17th at Doncaster, was not well attended. Along with a
presentation showing the results of the 2017 National Rugby Survey (more details
to come), Nigel Gillingham (RFU Council Member for Gloucestershire and member
of the International Rugby Ticketing Sub-Committee(IRTSC)) gave a presentation
on the proposed allocation of International tickets to the Game. 50% of tickets
for each game at Twickenham are allocated to Clubs, CBs, Referees Societies,
Schools, Colleges and Unversities. These
tickets come at an “Entitlement Price” which is less than they are offered on
general sale. The means of allocating
these tickets has remained unchanged for a number of years (despite clubs
having changed) and the IRTSC is undergoing consultation regarding the
methodology behind the distribution. The
current proposal is that each club should get a base allocation (2,4,6 or 8
tickets) and would then “qualify” for additional tickets based on the number of
games a club played during a season (this would include Men, Women and both
boys and girls at U14 and above). This, it is felt, would reward those clubs
who are contributing to the health and growth of the Game. In general, this met with approval from those
at the meeting, although there was a feeling that some recognition be given to
clubs running mini sections.
There will be an opportunity for Clubs to comment although
they will not receive the Presentation and it is hoped that within the County
we can utilise District Meetings to collect the views of Clubs. However, if any
clubs have comments they wish passed on to the IRTSC then please email them to
County Office who will pass them on to Ted and Jim
Activities in
April (Jim Chapman)
|
Date
|
|
|
08
|
West/Aire-Wharfe Volunteer Recognition (Yorkshire Carnegie)
|
|
09
|
YRFU Management Board/West Yorks Club Forum (Huddersfield RUFC)
|
|
11
|
North Yorkshire Volunteer Recognition (Cairn Hotel, Harrogate)
|
|
17
|
RFU Roadshow (Doncaster)
|
|
18
|
RFU Nominations Interview (Twickenham)
|
|
20
|
RFU Council (Twickenham)
|
|
25
|
Yorkshire Cup Final (York RUFC)
|
|
26
|
Area 6 Forum (Headlam Hall,Darlington)
|
Activities in April
(Ted Atkinson)
|
Date
|
|
|
04
|
Player Development Sub-Committee
(Wellington College)
|
|
05
|
England Counties U18 –
Outreach work
Dinner with RN, England U18 & Ireland
U18
|
|
06
|
Dinner with Ireland U18 Management
|
|
07
|
England U18 Counties v Ireland U18 Clubs
& Schools (HMS Temerare)
|
|
09
|
YRFU Management Board/West Yorks Clubs
Forum (Huddersfield RUFC)
|
|
11
|
East Yorkshire District (Beverley)
|
|
15
|
Yorkshire U20s v Hertfordshire U20s
(Doncaster RFC)
|
|
20
|
RFU Council (Twickenham)
|
|
26
|
Area 6 Forum (Headlam Hall, Darlington)
|
Ted Atkinson & Jim Chapman
March 2018
