‘Pleasant surprise’ for Portsmouth chairman
Portsmouth Rugby Club chairman Jonathan Whitehouse is 'pleasantly surprised' 15-a-side adapted contact matches have been passed to return at grassroots level from later this month.
The news is sure to be welcomed by clubs across the country with friendly fixtures given the green light to go ahead from Friday, December 18.
Although matches will be played under temporary adapted rules, Whitehouse is delighted Portsmouth have the chance to return to action potentially before Christmas.
Grassroots rugby has been one of many UK sports hit hard by the coronavirus outbreak.
Since the curtailment of seasons below Premiership and Championship levels in March, clubs were only able to train prior to last month's lockdown. But now, after a long nine-month wait, the 15-a-side game can return.
And it's news that delighted Portsmouth chairman Whitehouse, he said: ‘It’s a pleasant surprise.
‘We haven’t gone through the full Return of Rugby movement RFU planning, they’ve stepped that up.
It’s great as far as we’re concerned.
‘There are lots of logistical problems. We’re not clear on what we can do in the changing rooms at the moment, we certainly can’t shower, if we get very muddy we have a bit of a problem.
‘But it's good, exciting stuff.’
As part of the adapted matches, there will be no mauls or scrums, scrum restarts will be replaced by free-kicks and a minimum of five and maximum of seven players per-side can form a line-out. Clubs could also resume training yesterday with lockdown restrictions lifted. Now Portsmouth head coach Gareth Richards, who is currently self-isolating, is busy trying to plan friendlies ahead of a training return next week. ‘We would certainly hope to (get a friendly in before Christmas),' added Whitehouse.
‘It’s early days yet and we’ve got to see what’s available. We may well be playing before then (Christmas) and Gareth (Richards) is working on that at the moment.’