Club is banking on help moving forward
RUGBY LEAGUE DAVID WILKINSON
MACCLESFIELD Rugby Club is taking part in the NatWest RugbyForce 2020, a nationwide programme developed in partnership with England Rugby, which provides an opportunity for rugby clubs to open their doors to their local communities.
With team members and volunteers helping to make improvements to their clubs ahead of the return to rugby, this is possible now that clubs have had the green light by the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to play Ready4Rugby, in the adapted non-contact game and O2 Touch.
Postponed from June due to the pandemic, MRUFC will be welcoming volunteers down to the club on the September 5-6, 9am onwards, and asking them to pitch-in and roll-up-theirsleeves to carry out much needed repairs and upgrades to the club’s facilities.
General manager and head coach, Andy Appleyard was very pleased with the previous call to action: “We have been so lucky with the amount of volunteers that have stepped forward in the last 18 or so months.
“You can see an obvious transformation of the hospitality areas and the positive effect this has had on the environment on match days, club events and functions.
“There is a real importance to carry on this good work so we are calling out again for our previous and hopefully some new volunteers to get stuck in.
“Food will be available on the day and there will be some cold ones for the volunteers! The bar will also be open both days.”
This year, NatWest is offering more help, than ever before, to support the rugby community, providing an opportunity for a record number of clubs to get involved in the programme, with grants ranging from £500 to £3000 awarded to clubs to help renovate facilities; helping them to remain sustainable for longer, in these challenging times. MRUFC was one of the lucky clubs to pick up a £500 grant.
The Rugby Club will continue to follow the government coronavirus guidelines and ensure all activities fall within these guidelines, at the time of the event, to ensure safety of all participants.
IF you’re a local business, individual or member, and you would like to get involved and support Macclesfield Rugby
Club, in the community, please contact: andy@maccrugby.co. uk, 07935490960
CONTACT RUGBY TRAINING IS BACK
AS of 1st September the RFU’s Return to Rugby
Road Map reaches stage D: ‘Adapted Contact Training & Non Contact Fixtures’. This will be good news for players and coaches at the rugby club as we move towards the return to competitive league rugby.
Varied training conditions will allow the return of tackling, lineouts and rucks, ensuring players are prepared to perform these skills safely and effectively with some restrictions. Mauls, scrums, opposed lineouts or upright tackles are still not permissible as the transmission exposure risk remains high. Contact training sessions have to be carried out in small groups of no more than six players.
Chairman Steven Branch said: “This is excellent news for Andy and the other coaches, and all the players in the squad; they will be very keen to start playing rugby again, even in this adapted form.
“It’s going to help players get back in the grove and for the new players to the squad, a chance to show what they can do. Whilst in theory, full-on, competitive rugby starts up again on October 10th no one knows for sure what will happen in the coming weeks”.
There are a lot of boxes to be ticked before North Premier Rugby can restart, and at the moment the view is that there is likely to be a further delay, given the current state of the pandemic in the UK.
If the community game has not started up again by 5th December Macclesfield would play in a more locally based reduced league structure.
Head coach Andy Appleyard confirmed that all of the players from last season had signed again for MRUFC, plus a number of new players to the club, in addition to several returning 1st team players from seasons past.
He and forwards’ coach Rick Jones will have a healthy selection headache ahead of them, when the league eventually gets underway again.