Yes support has reduced, but it’s not all RFU’s fault

TONY Dunkerley rightly flags the issue of falling senior men’s playing numbers in his letter last week, but I fear that his proposal to increase the number of league matches played by 1st teams is not the solution.

This is treating the symptom of inactive clubhouses, while neglecting the disease itself – the loss by many clubs of 2nd and 3rd teams, which, if as widespread as he indicates, is the real problem. I fail to see how responsibility for this can be laid at the door of the RFU.

In many cases, it is an undue focus on a club’s 1st team that has led to the demise of lower sides, as resources have been diverted away from the real grassroots of the game – junior and social rugby.

With rugby increasingly dependant on clubs to foster the game through their mini and youth sections and in encouraging local schools to participate, the onus has to be on those of us in the front line to drive participation.

While it is true that the steady reduction in central support from Twickenham has been very unhelpful, this cannot be held up as the primary reason for clubs failing to utilise existing facilities more fully to offer mini and youth rugby and retain more of those players into senior rugby.

There may well be a place for an increase in 1st team league matches at some levels, particularly if these are generating net revenue increases for investment in support of senior social sides and the juniors.

If that is the case, then it is surely not beyond the realms of possibility for likeminded clubs to band together and lobby their Counties to seek action via their RFU Council reps and beyond.