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In light of Government’s announcement over the weekend of new restrictions on travel and participation in adult grass roots sport for many areas, the publication of the Cluster fixtures planned for today, 22 December, will be held over until early in the New Year.

This pause will allow the Adult Competition Management Sub Committee to take on board the very latest Government guidance, which is due on 30 December, before finalising the fixture schedule.

We are keen for rugby communities who wish to play to have this opportunity and hope it will still be possible for clubs in Tiers 1, 2 and 3 to commence Cluster Competitions as planned on 23 and 24 January. However, we will need to take Government guidance following their review.

Our next communication will be in the Community Game Update on Tuesday 5 January 2021.

Teams in Tiers 1, 2 and 3, may still organise local friendlies ahead of the Cluster fixtures being confirmed, as long as they are within Tier & Area parameters, follow Stage E law adaptations and adhere to RFU and Government Covid-19 guidance.

For the avoidance of doubt, adult community rugby is not permitted in Tier 4 areas. The government’s Tier 4 guidance states organised outdoor sport for under-18s and disabled people will be allowed. The government’s guidelines on travel between tiers should be adhered to. These players cannot move in or out of Tier 4 to train or play.

A number of queries have been received about whether CBs can and should be cancelling rugby activity. If the rugby activity is organised by the CBs (such as a county representative programme), the decision as to whether such activity should continue or not rests with the CB. This is in the same way that organisers of rugby activity can decide in their own discretion as to whether activity should go ahead, provided that such activity remains permitted by the RFU and Government.

However, for rugby activity which is not organised by the CB, clubs and players can continue to participate in such rugby activity provided it has not been cancelled or postponed by the RFU and/or Government.

22 Dec 20

Following the decision from the RFU Council to cancel the 20/21 League Season for Men’s (Level 3 and below) and Women’s (Level 2 and below) competitions, plans have been developed to instigate ‘local cluster’ fixtures to help facilitate a return to contact rugby match play when we are able (hopefully in the New Year).

This proposal is based around five principles;

• Providing Clubs with structured local competitive fixtures
• Based on contact rugby (either full contact or adapted variations dependent on HM Government advice)
• Minimised travel times
• Local Clusters of up to 7 teams (the number will vary according to specific regions and on agreed local needs)
• Relaxed regulations to remove barriers to participation

The make-up of these clusters are here. To ease travel and in support of player welfare they are constructed based on geography and current level of play and will offer a number of both home and away matches. Some of the Women’s clusters are smaller due to the lower density in teams within the league pyramid. Clubs in these smaller clusters will have the ability to play each other multiple times as well as crossing over with other local clusters.

Participation is optional and the results of any matches will have no impact on promotion or relegation in the league pyramid.  Clubs are free to opt out of being included if they wish to play in another locally organised model or to simply arrange matches on an ad-hoc basis. By opting in clubs can support each other by travelling to respective grounds and selecting appropriate squads of players to ensure meaningful and enjoyable games. We believe that this engagement can play a critical role in the game’s recovery after nine months without activity.

The format of the game will be that agreed between the RFU and Government under return to contact rugby protocols and is likely, at least initially, to involve law adaptations.

Clubs can opt-in or out of their proposed clusters by filling in the following short survey here. Please be aware that clubs with multiple teams in the pyramid will need to fill out a response for each team.

Based on the attached initial detail, clubs are requested to confirm their ‘opt-in’ by 30^th November to enable Organising Committees time to finalise the clusters and develop fixture lists.

The use of “Game On” principles will be encouraged at Levels 5 and below in the Men’s game and at all levels in the Women’s game. This enables further adaptations to be made where both teams agree to enable games to be played, for example, with less than 15 players or with a shorter playing duration.  In addition, and on agreement, clubs will have the flexibility to change fixture dates and playing format according to what format of the game may be permissible at the time of a fixture.

Following the announcement in the latest RFU Community Game Update that a start to the season in October will not be possible the following amendments have been made to the fixtures issued in July.

14 Club Leagues

As previously advised fixtures for the first four weeks have already been moved to the 12th and 19th December and 2nd and 9th January. Now weeks 5 to 9 will move to the 16th, 23rd and 30th January plus the 6th and 13th February. If the season is able to start on the 7th November it will commence with the fixtures shown for week 10.

12 Club Leagues

The fixtures due to be played on the 26th September have already been moved to the 12th December. Following this latest announcement the fixtures for weeks 2 to 5 will move to the 19th December and the 9th, 16th and 23rd January. If the season is able to start on the 7th November it will commence with the week 6 fixtures moved from the 31st October. This decision has been taken as originally the 7th November was due to be a reserve week.

10 Club Leagues

The fixtures for weeks 1 to 5 will move to the 12th and 19th December and the 9th, 16th and 23rd January. If the season is able to start on the 7th November it will commence with the games shown for week 6.

As you will appreciate the situation is under constant review and we will update this page as soon as we have any further information.

02 Sep 20

The fixtures for the new season have been published and are available here.

The season has been divided into three windows. Most Leagues been split into two groups based on geography. In the first window you will play each team in your group home and away. Dates have been allocated to these games. If we do not start on time each week will be automatically moved to the end of the first window. Thus if we don’t start until, say, week 6 – it is week 6’s fixtures which will be your first game. Therefore you will always have maximum notice of what your fixtures will be.  You can read more details in the latest newsletter.

Please note: It is not yet confirmed when the season will start – the dates shown may well change as outlined above.

If we complete the first window successfully we will then move to the second which will see you playing teams from the other group in your league once – either home OR away. If there is still time after that the third window will be played – where you will meet the teams from the opposite group at the opposite venues to the second window.

15 Jul 20