Christophe’s impact felt by our neighbours
RUGBY UNION DAVID WILKINSON
IF you’re an English rugby fan there has been nothing to see on the telly for the past two weeks, as that’s the only way we can enjoy the best game in the world at the moment.
At the advice of the French Government, the French rugby clubs involved in the Champions cup and the Challenge Cup were asked not to take part in cross border matches. As a consequence all matches were postponed except for those in Pro 14, that does not include English Clubs.
It was hoped that Premiership Rugby would bring forward rounds 7 and 8 of the Premiership to fill the gap, instead players were given a two week break; probably much needed as the original Covid-19 lockdown had meant the two seasons virtually running into each other.
With no rugby in England being played, attention has been drawn to the off-field highlights, the biggest headlines being afforded to Eddie Jones’s new, England Squad for the upcoming Six Nations Championship and the appointment of Alex Sanderson as Director of Rugby at Sale Sharks.
In times gone by, the announcement of an England squad would come with bucket loads of anticipation and excitement, but having won the Autumn Nations Cup competition in December and the Six Nations Championship prior to that, the England squad would most likely be ‘settled’. This doesn’t however inhibit supporters from voicing their opinion, and neither should it.
The most vociferous calls come for the inclusion of Sam Simmons and Jack Willis into the backrow. Two players that many would say are playing the best rugby in those positions within England. But Eddie has a bigger picture to look at, the form of the current incumbents within the England set up, playing strategy, and how would these players cope with the leap up to International Rugby? Jack Willis has had a brief sniff at it and some would say that Sam Simmons is simply not big enough to cope at international level. I for one don’t agree with the size analogy and believe that his game-changing talents could be exploited to the full, given the strength of the bulk of the rest of the pack – it works for Exeter! However, in both cases, their stats are just not as good as last season’s!
Both of the bolters in the backs, Paolo Odogwu and Harry Randall, are inform, and non-conformists when it comes to the accepted statue for their respective positions.
Harry Randall is possibly the smallest player in the Premiership but Eddie has had an eye on his rare talents for some time; he has a 100% pass record and has passed the ball more times than any other player in the Premiership; and his vision for spotting and executing a gap is something that will be of great interest to Eddie.
In Paolo Odogwu England may have found a replacement for the injury prone Manu Tuilagi. Whilst he doesn’t have the overall bulk of Manu, at 5’ 9” and 15.5 stone he is a super-charged pocketrocket.
Both could bring a linebreaking edge to England’s game that has been lacking in recent matches. Eddie will be keen to get them into camp and test them out, but don’t expect them to necessarily make the last 23.
Rugby returns to the Premiership on Friday evening with a tasty encounter between Leicester and Sale Sharks.
It will be the first game in charge for the new DOR Alex Sanderson and you can guarantee that he will have his new team charged-up for the encounter. Many will see Sanderson as the natural replacement for Steve Diamond, ex Sale Sharks and a gritty Northerner, with plenty of experience of working with South African players.
Outside of the Premiership, community rugby clubs, as well as other sporting clubs, have had a torrid time since March 2020. The affect of the lockdown has meant little revenue for most of these clubs. No bars sales, little membership subscriptions and sponsorship money has meant clubs have been hanging on, trying to cover their fixed overheads. Some clubs will now be very fearful of the future.
No one knows how long the current lockdown will last; the best guess is that there will be no competitive rugby until September 2021. Storm Christophe has now made matters even worse for some clubs; locally, Didsbury TOC H was submerged when the Mersey was flooded by the EA into their basin to save local housing.
Further upstream Old Bedians and Burnage rugby clubs were also on the edge of being flooded; Bedians having a visit from Boris with the EA, it was touch and go but the flood defences have just about held, although they may not be quite out of it yet.
It’s likely that many clubs may be on the verge of collapse and will be reliant upon funds from the RFU and their local authorities to keep them afloat. Thankfully Macclesfield are not in that predicament. The recent good news to come via the RFU is that they will be administering £23m in grants to clubs in most need. Our Cheshire RFU Councillor reported that the money will be by a grant, but at the moment the means-test criteria has yet to be confirmed.
As well as financial support from the membership, volunteers at Macclesfield Rugby Club have ensured that changes were made during the first Lockdown that secured an income stream up until Christmas time. It’s not just one group of volunteers that makes things happen at the Club, but a number of diverse groups of people who dedicate their time, skills and energy for the good of the membership per se. During the next few months we will be highlighting the work of all those involved; starting with the Groundstaff.
MRUFC Grounds Staff Volunteers
I recently chatted to Immediate Past President John Webster (Webbers) who has been looking after the grounds for over twenty years. He told me that in July 2003 after he had retired from teaching, that he’d met Jim Hammer at a birthday party and offered to help him with the mowing. At the time Jim was looking after the grounds and was helped, on the equipment side by Chris Wright. At the next AGM Jim retired and Webbers took over with the grand title of, Chairman of Resources. Webbers told me, sometime afterwards at a quiz, the players were asked if they knew who the Chairman of Resources was: “Well they hadn’t got the foggiest what the job was, let alone who was doing it”.
In 2005 Webbers’ team consisted of himself, Jim Hammer, Chris Wright, Nick Munslow and Ron Townley. Reading his report to the committee the team had much to do on a week by week basis with four senior pitches and five mini pitches to maintain. In the summer months the grass was cut every week and treated with weed killer and fertilizers. In 2007 it was agreed by the committee to infill the land beyond the mound, that had previously been the Vets and Fifth team pitches for many years; the Club were reimbursed £45,000.
By 2012 Chris Wright had retired but Barry Day, Barry Limb, John Davies and Mike Johnson had also joined the ground’s team; Mike Johnson the Mole-Man must have done a good job as they’re rarely seen these days. Webbers wrote in his report: ”The two stand out non rugby match memories for this season were firstly the sight of my son ice skating around the posts and dead-ball area at the score board end of the main pitch ….and secondly the sight of the pitches on the Monday morning after the under 8 Cheshire Festival”. It wasn’t good, 2000 little feet in the pouring rain had made a serious impression on the big pitch. Webbers also reported on the pitches behind the mound, and the levelling and top soil work on the main pitch. At the end of his report he thought that he’d resigned! However, he found that new recruit Nemmy would only come onboard if he stayed – 8 years later! Since then others have joined the team including Dave Armstrong, Steve, Jock and Dave Holding.
I asked Webbers about the hot-potato of who makes the decision of when a pitch is playable or not, and do the Ground Staff have a say in it: “Nemmy will generally make his view known, whether the main pitch is playable or not. Things are not quite as bad these days, as since James Ashbrook has lent us some of their portable lighting, for training on the other pitches, pressure has been taken off the main pitch”.
In normal seasons the state of the main pitch at this time of year would be fairly bereft of grass with patches of sand everywhere; Covid-19 has kept it pristine! Although Webbers told me that rugby studs do aerate the ground: “Having said that Nemmy goes mad when it’s played on too much as the ground becomes compacted; that’s when we could do with our own Aerator, which we could hire out to other clubs, as they’re pretty expensive to hire”.
I asked John, if money was no object, what would he invest in, to improve the grounds: “What we need a lot of money for at the moment is to dress the ground, we would need in the region of 100 tons, it’s not been done since around 2008. We did about 20 tons last year but that was spread around by hand. It would take about five lorry loads of a mixture of soil, sand and loam to do the job properly; last time we paid the council to do it with their machinery”.
Next on the list for Webbers would be returning the area behind the mound into a playing area; as the ground has been unplayable for over 13 years.
Stephen Sampson had done an excellent job striming and mowing the area last summer, John told me: “Steve has been a great help to the team, repairing equipment and bringing equipment from the farm to help us out, he’s also come up with a plan to return this area to a playing surface after suitable drainage is put in place”.
Once returned to a well drained playing surface, the land will create numerous opportunities for the Club, which Andy Appleyard is keen to exploit. At the moment there is a sub-committee tasked with the development opportunities for this area of Priory Park.
John and the team do an excellent job of looking after the ground and long may it continue with new blood into the team – Webbers says that he hopes to retire again, finally, for the umpteenth time - but I can’t see it!