Grassroots are still lifeblood of this game

IN his letter last week Ross Reyburn slates the RFU for “deserting its role as guardian of ... the country’s huge playing resources”, yet goes on to advocate as the answer to all our problems the creation of two 10 team leagues of professional clubs – inevitably requiring substantial additional funding from the governing body for the extra pro teams.

Former England flanker James Haskell’s solution is to introduce NFL elitism and razzmatazz, stating in last week’s paper that “grassroots rugby is important but you do not need a good amateur league to have a strong professional league”.

Without junior clubs’ mini sections, where would all the English-born elite players have learned their rugby basics? Where would the bulk of the rugby-savvy supporters of top clubs and England have gained their love of a complex game that does not lend itself to the kind of mass popular support from a non-playing public to which NFL caters?

Hard-working and often hard-pressed junior club volunteers across the country are underpinning the whole game and, while their primary motivations are undoubtedly locally-focussed, having their collective contribution to the game as a whole repeatedly undervalued, or taken for granted can become dispiriting.

The flow of children being brought into the game by mini sections of grassroot clubs is the lifeblood of the game, which is being pumped right through it by the immense work being put in by such clubs to develop these players and keep them in the game at all levels for as long as possible.

I would appeal, therefore, to columnists and pundits to spare more thought for these clubs and their volunteers and to consider carefully the – possibly unintended – messages their musings on the rest of the game may convey.