Halifax decline their place in RFL’s end-of-season competition

Halifax RLFC have confirmed they will not be taking part in the RFL’s autumn tournament.

Fax boss Simon Grix revealed to the Courier last week that he had reservations about participating in the competition due to the risk of injuries to players.

After the Championship and League One seasons were cancelled, clubs have been invited to feature in a new competition, with a theme of celebrating the sport’s 125th anniversary and a prize pot of £250,000.

The tournament is seen as a way of ensuring lower league clubs can play some games and earn some income after the coronavirus pandemic.

But in a statement on their website, the club said: “As a board we have a duty of care to both the club and all its staff.

“Whilst the end of season tournament is a commendable gesture by the RFL, our club will not be taking part for the following reasons:

“Our players, who are part time, have not played for four months, have no suitable training facilities or time to get back up to match fitness.

“The risk to players picking up injuries (as evidenced in the

NRL) is too high for us to consider allowing them to play. Financially the board has worked very hard, alongside its stakeholders, to manage its way through this pandemic.

“The current situation sees the club having a chance to survive 2020 with help from those stakeholders.

“However, the prohibitive costs of testing, un-furloughing players, match day costs, playing either behind closed doors or restricted crowd numbers, simply puts all that hard work at risk.

“The club’s longer term survival and growth is paramount and the board feel that this has to take priority, therefore we will not be entering this end of season competition.”