How rugby’s grass roots can grow again
Reports that the Rugby Football Union is looking at making the amateur game “contact-free” next season were bound to produce a reaction. Rugby without scrummaging, tackling and mauling? You cannot be serious, as John McEnroe might have said.
The truth is, though, this is serious… very serious. Faced with the prospect of contact-free rugby (or, more accurately, a “no-contact game”) or no matches at all, I would go for the hybrid option every time.
If there is no rugby at all, if there is nothing to watch, no socialising, no incentive for players to train, a club’s whole raison d’etre is taken away. We could see countless grass-roots clubs lost. Who knows how long it will be until social distancing is lifted?
We have to remember, 99 per cent of rugby is amateur, run by volunteers and financially supported by members and local businesses. So could there be a hybrid solution to allow clubs to have a meaningful opportunity to open? I think so. It is far from ideal and, yes, it is not rugby as such. But it could be a lifeline for clubs while we transition from lockdown.
Coaches are always devising different skills activities, and you can have a lot of fun playing these sorts of games. While at Northampton and Wasps we played a rugby-soccer hybrid (akin to Gaelic football) which I called fugby. It was great for core skills – kicking, passing, handling, catching – and ferociously competitive. On Saturday mornings, after the first team’s captain’s run at Wasps, the remainder of the squad would play it. The players would always ask for it. No, it was not rugby, but the players left training with smiles on their faces.
Why not have such games to transition back into playing and encourage some hybrid competitions regionally with minimum expense?
In fact, with the huge pressure on funding over the next year or two, could this even take the amateur game, in the longer term, back into more regional-based competitions with minimal emphasis on promotion and relegation? Then have the RFU Cup as a national highlight. A two-year transitional window could allow a meaningful assessment.
We know the RFU had already begun a review of the national league structures and of payment to players in the lower leagues before the domestic season was brought to a premature close. A strong local identity could be brought back through restructuring from National Two down. We cannot play any league rugby for the moment anyway.
Like the game the world over, it is a good time to reappraise and approach a new challenge with open minds.
I was really struck by news of the success of the breakaway Lancashire Rugby Union County Leagues, established a couple of years ago with a two-division structure to reduce the amount of travel for clubs.
Revenues have apparently increased significantly and player retention has soared. It is a great success story and one, I think, the RFU should seriously consider, particularly now.
The benefits of such an approach are clear. Derek Dyer, chairman of Widnes RUFC, who won Lancashire’s Premier Division in the first two seasons, pointed out many of them this week. Since all the matches are local, Widnes players can now work on Saturday mornings and still make the game. That has meant the club have been able to reduce the size of their squad from 40 to 25, which benefits the consistency of the first team.
Smaller first-team squads mean more second teams and a home game for the club every week. The longest journey for a match is around 45 minutes, as opposed to the five-hour return trips they used to have.
With such an approach, RFU funding could be freed up and allocated to programmes for player and coach development and to improving club facilities. They could reward clubs and regions who develop a strong local development network and build aspirations.
I have been involved in this type of work in the recent past with the Yorkshire Academy, which is now back in the hands of the RFU after the disastrous approach and failure of Yorkshire Carnegie 12 months ago. The work done there linked clubs, county, Leeds Beckett University and academy. It provided an outlet for development programmes involving 800 players and more than 70 coaches based at clubs in five satellite areas.
One of the requisites was that no parent should have to travel more than 45 minutes to one of the satellite centres. These centres and clubs could be used for the RFU to integrate community and talent pathway programmes rather than keeping them separate, as happens now.
It would ensure – crucially – that a majority of local players would stay connected to their local clubs from 20 to 30 to 40 years old and beyond, using the club as a social base. But also that the very talented would have doors open to progress to the very top.
We are in for a bumpy few years. But there are solutions out there to help the RFU out of a short-term financial problem, while also creating positive support steps which could be good for the long-term future of our domestic game.