The next meeting of Council is Friday, October 5th. This
is preceded by Community Game Board will meet at Twickenham in Wednesday, 29th
August.
RFU Business Planning/Staff
Consultation – as many of you
will have read in the Press the RFU has been active in refining the Business
Plan for 2018/19 and beyond. This has
also included a staff consultation exercise which resulted in a number of redundancies
throughout the RFU Workforce. This blog is publicly available and is NOT the
place for any expansion on the above remarks. Both Ted and Jim will attend as
many District Meetings as possible over the coming months and will provide a
fuller picture and background to the current financial situation at Twickenham.
In
fact, at the time of writing, we are unable to provide a full picture of the
situation as it is still developing. We have a meeting with Steve Grainger at
the beginning of August which will give us a fuller picture and we will report
on this meeting to both the County Committee (which meets on 6th
August) and District Committees. Much of the information to date is
confidential and, particularly where it relates to individuals, cannot be
released.
Suffice
to say, some of the information that has appeared in the Press is inaccurate
and, whilst there may be some truth in it, is often based on supposition. Sadly,
we still have a problem at Twickenham where information is being leaked to the
Press, often with a bias!
NW Leagues – again, many of you will have read
about dissatisfaction amongst some Lancashire clubs regarding league structures
in the North West. This has centred around concerns over travelling to Cumbria
and led to a number of Lancashire clubs resigning from the RFU Leagues and
establishing their own (independent) leagues.
The resulting league structure meant that some Cheshire clubs were faced
with the prospect of making long journeys to fulfil fixtures in Cumbria. This led
to a number of appeals by clubs across the North West. The outcome of this was a meeting held in
Lancaster and chaired by Jim Chapman to attempt to find a solution to the
problem for season 18/19.
The
meeting resulted in Cumbrian clubs agreeing to a Cumbria only structure at
level 7 and 8 for one season whilst the RFU (and Competitions Development Sub-Committee,
chaired by Jim Chapman in particular) examined the league structure at level 7
(equivalent to Yorkshire 1) and below. The ultimate aim is to provide a structure
that suits all clubs across the whole of the North Divisional Organising Committee
(North DOC) area. There will be consultation across the whole of the North DOC
which will include Yorkshire, Durham and Northumberland in addition to Cumbria,
Lancashire and Cheshire. Further details will follow, and all clubs will have
the opportunity to input into the consultation.
Activities in July
(Jim Chapman)
|
Date
|
|
|
06
|
Graham Siswick, Funeral (Wetherby/Harrogate RFC)
|
|
09
|
YRFU Committee (Pontefract RUFC)
|
|
12
|
Meeting with Paul O’Leary (Central London)
Morag Kelly Memorial Service (wife of President Elect Chris Kelly,
Picadilly, London)
|
|
17
|
Meeting with Ben Lowe/Paul O’Leary (Twickenham)
|
|
18
|
Meeting ref. NW Leagues (Holiday Inn, Lancaster)
|
Activities in July
(Ted Atkinson)
|
Date
|
|
|
06
|
Graham Siswick, Funeral (Wetherby/Harrogate RFC)
|
|
09
|
YRFU Committee (Pontefract RUFC)
|
|
11-12
|
Morag Kelly Memorial Service (Picadilly, London)
|
|
17
|
Meeting with Martin McTaggart ref. Player Development &
Aspirational Pathway (Twickenham)
|
|
18
|
Commission into 17/18 yr old rugby (Twickenham)
|
Ted Atkinson & Jim Chapman
July 2018
