The next meeting of RFU Council is Friday, October 5th.
Community Game Board met at Twickenham in Wednesday, 29th August,
with the next meeting planned for Thursday, 18th October.
RFU Staff Consultation - There is still movement on the staff front. Following Hamish Pratt’s move to Area 6
Manager he has now been replaced by Andy Frageley (previously CRC in Central
Yorkshire) who has now taken up his role as RDO for Yorkshire West.
Further
afield we welcome Matt Bryan who was previously Durham RDO and who has been
appointed as Regional Competitions Development Officer for Area 6. This is a
new position within the Competition’s
Development Department and Matt will have an overview of all competitions in
the North of England.
We
wish both individuals every success in their new roles.
England Women vs Canada Women – a reminder that England Women will
play Canada Women at Doncaster RFC on Sunday, 18th November, kicking
off at 2:00 p.m. Tickets are available
from drfc.co.uk and
we would urge you to visit and buy a ticket for the fixture. With plenty of
interest I’m sure the RFU will look to arrange further fixtures at grounds in
our area.
Fixtures at St James’ Park, Newcastle – again, I’m sure that you have seen
that the European Cup Finals next May will be held in Newcastle. This consists
of the final of the European Challenge Cup, followed the next day by the Final
of the European Champions Cup. Then, later in the year on Saturday 6th
September England will play their final RWC warm-up Game versus Italy at the
same venue. Once again, Ted and Jim would urge you to support these games – the
better attendance we get, the more likely we are to attract future games to the
area
League Re-Structure – as many will be aware 19 Lancashire
Clubs resigned from the league structure at the end of last season. This was
mainly due to dissatisfaction at the distances they had to travel. It lead to
North DOC restructuring the leagues in the North West which led to a number of
appeals and resulted in an emergency meeting held in Lancaster where Cumbrian
clubs agreed to a one year trial of a Cumbria only league. Part of the Appeal verdict was that a widespread
consultation be conducted across the whole of the North to look at league
structures. This consultation is being
led by Jim Chapman in his role as Chairman, Competitions Development
Sub-Committee. A meeting will be held in
Yorkshire during October and will mainly concern clubs in the West of our
County. Communication will be sent out shortly but please look out for it, and
if you think your club will be affected then please ensure you attend the
meeting.
Electronic Match Cards – a big thank you and congratulations
to those clubs at level 7 & 8 (Yorkshire 1 & 2) who have seen the
introduction of electronic match cards this season. Despite some initial
teething problems we are now at a point where we are achieving nearly 100%
successful completion of cards each weekend. Thank you to those involved and
please keep up the good work.
Community Rugby Budget – work is already under way on budgets
for 2019-20 season. The Community Game
Board has meetings planned during October, November and January where the
single topic will be the budget. They have decided on a slightly different
approach this year looking at three areas that are termed fundamentals –
Recruitment, Retention and Re-Engagement. Currently the Game Board is looking
to define what is required in each of these areas and how they should
prioritise spending in each area. As
both the model and actual spending is refined we will keep you up to date.
County Championship – the County Championship Committee
has been busy during September and is almost in a position to release the fixtures
for all three competitions (Jason Leonard U20 Championship, Bill Beaumont Cup
and Gill Burns Cup). Once these are known we will ensure that everyone is aware
of both fixtures and venues.
Diversity & Inclusion – included on the next Council agenda
is a first report from the Diversity & Inclusion Working Group, the report
contains some interesting statistics about Committees and sub-committees at
Twickenham along with interesting reflections on the wider game.
Sally Burns is part of this group and will, we are sure, be happy to
update anyone who has queries. In
Yorkshire we are making some useful steps forward with good growth in the women’s
game, more diversity on the County Committee and, of course, the fact that we
will have the first woman as President of the County next year. Despite this we
still have some way to go before our county reflects the diversity of our
demographic.
Activities in September
(Jim Chapman)
|
Date
|
|
|
11
|
Meeting with Steve Grainger (County Office)
|
|
17
|
North Yorkshire District (Ripon RFC)
|
|
25
|
England Colleges RFU Board Meeting (Twickenham)
|
|
26
|
Yorkshire West District (Keighley RUFC)
|
|
27
|
Adult Competitions Development Sub-Committee (Twickenham)
|
Activities in September
(Ted Atkinson)
|
Date
|
|
|
17
|
North Yorkshire District (Ripon RUFC)
|
|
19
|
Conference Call ref. County Championship
|
|
20
|
17 to 18 Commission (Twickenham)
|
|
21
|
Meeting with John Lawn ref age Grade Rugby (Twickenham)
|
|
24
|
Interviews England Counties Manager & Assistant Manager (Long
Eaton RUFC)
|
|
26
|
Meeting with Peter Taylor ref. interviews above
|
|
26
|
Central District (Ossett RUFC)
|
|
27
|
Area 6 Forum (Darlington)
|
Ted Atkinson & Jim Chapman
September 2018
