In normal times, I afford myself the luxury of a game of golf on a given weekend. As a former rugby player who has represented his country I like to think I have a certain aptitude for sport in general and, as I’ve moved away from full-time employment over the years, I’ve been able to devote more time to golf. I fulfil my duties as WRU chairman with pride, diligence and dedication during the week, but I’m a Sunday morning regular and I might get out and practice with extra sessions when time allows.
It’s the kind of schedule that rugby players in the community game might enjoy as they prepare to partake of their chosen past-time on rugby pitches around Wales during the season. In comparison to the professional game in either sport, I’d suggest we are perhaps at a similar standard. I’m not going to win the Ryder Cup and there are hundreds of players at clubs around the country who will never pull on the red jersey of Wales, but who nevertheless love and passionately enjoy our game and, indeed, help to sustain it with enthusiasm and commitment to it.
As we often state, the community game is the lifeblood of our sport, club players are also supporters, coaches, administrators and referees and alongside their families and social networks they form the very DNA of Welsh rugby, but there is one persistent factor at this level of the game that I simply cannot fathom – payment.
There is no one scouting the golf courses looking to tempt me with lucrative offers after a decent round and neither would I, nor anyone else for that matter, expect there to be. So why do clubs, who exist for rugby and rugby alone so unnecessarily drain the very resources which could ensure long term sustainability by insisting on paying players?
I spoke on these pages last week about opportunity arising from present adversity. Clubs around the country now have a stark admission to make, after cancelling the season at the end of March doors have been closed, lights have been switched off and costs have been minimised, in readiness for the time when we can switch everything back on again. But there are outliers who cannot turn off all the taps in this simple way. They are the amateur clubs who have players on contracts and with wage bills to sustain. In the professional game there have been negotiations and pay-cuts across the board, but in the amateur game this should not have been an issue.
I know many of our Indigo Group Premiership clubs, for example, are keen to use the current lull in playing to re-assess their own finances. At this level of the game there is a willingness already to more tightly control payments made to players and a widespread acceptance that this aspect of individual club business models is not currently fit for purpose. But, if the Premiership must significantly tighten its belt, elsewhere payments must not be made at all.
We will have the opportunity soon, we hope, to start again. The opportunity is there for us all to sit down with our key stakeholders and re-calibrate. Welsh rugby will return with renewed vigour, it will be refreshed and irrepressible and the communities around our clubs will flood out of their homes to gather again to enjoy each other’s company and to enjoy our national sport.
But please, dear clubs, I implore you let us start again with the right structure. If no club offers payment, then there will be no market for player wages and no club will feel the need. If no club breaks ranks and we all play for enjoyment, for our town or village of birth, for the club with whom we hold the strongest affinity, with our friends and neighbours, our extended families and our children, then no club will suffer the same threat of oblivion that is currently being felt in some quarters if a similar crisis were to strike again.
Don’t pay players. Play in the league you are in, strive to beat the opposition you face, dream of lifting the trophies available at your current standard and attract the players who are drawn to your club. Use the money you save on attracting, developing and engaging players for the future or on ensuring your club remains the central hub of your community that it has always been. Be sustainable and help safeguard the future for us all.
Yours in rugby,
Gareth Davies
WRU chairman
COVID – 19 Club Support
Over 130 clubs have now filled in our Club Impact Survey, sent to secretaries in the Information Update on Friday 3rd April. The honesty and candour with which submissions have been made so far, will greatly help us to help you and we are asking clubs who have not yet completed the survey to please do so by Friday 24th April 2020.
This will enable us to better understand where clubs require support and advice and to allocate the correct resources accordingly. It is vitally important that as many clubs as possible provide us with the right information as soon as they are able.
Any queries should be directed to the WRU Helpdesk clubdevelopment@wru.wales
Welsh Government Grant Support
The Welsh Government Business Support Scheme was designed to award businesses within the retail, leisure and hospitality sectors – with a rateable value of between £12,001 & £51,000 – an automatic £25,000 grant and, for smaller business with a rateable value of under £12,000, there is an available grant of £10,000.
Clubs are now beginning to receive grant support from Local Authorities including Yr Hendy and Whitland who have received payments of £25,000 and £10,000 respectively from Carmarthenshire County Council.
Pentyrch have received a grant of £10,000 from Cardiff City Council and Bedwas £25,000 from Caerphilly County Borough Council.
While awarding both grants, we know that some clubs have been deemed ineligible for the small business award of £10,000 as they do not receive Small Business Rate Relief. We would therefore encourage those ineligible clubs to assess their eligibility for the latest Welsh Government support scheme, the Economic Resilience Fund, launching on Friday 17th April, 2020.
One such club was Tonna who were deemed to be ineligible following discussions with their Local Authority. Byron Morris, Club Secretary outlines the situation below that a number of clubs are facing across Wales:
“Our Local Authority are not paying the £10,000 grants to sports clubs like ourselves who have a rateable value under £12,000 and are registered as CASCs. They have advised that the Business Rates relief granted to CASCs is different to Small Business Rates relief (SBRR), and only businesses that receive SBRR are eligible for the grant.
“Some good news – the criteria for the Economic Resilience Fund Grant provided by Welsh Government confirms we should now be eligible.”
Economic Resilience fund Grant (launching 17/4/2020)
The fund will provide additional financial support during the coronavirus pandemic and will help organisations to manage cash flow pressures. It will help to address gaps not met by schemes already announced by the UK Government, Welsh Government and Development Bank of Wales. To assess your club’s eligibility for the Economic Resilience Fund and wider Welsh Government grant support, we would encourage all clubs to follow the link provided here https://fundchecker.businesswales.gov.wales/#step-0 and complete the questions being asked.
This phase of the Economic Resilience Fund, will release £200m of funding, and is targeted at microbusinesses, SMEs and large businesses of critical social or economic importance to Wales.
Micro businesses employing up to nine employees could be eligible for up to £10k support. Eligibility for the £10k support asks that the organisation in question:
• Has experienced in excess of a 40% reduction in turnover since 1 March 2020
• Can demonstrate that efforts have been made to sustain business activity
• Are not pursuing other forms of Welsh Government non-repayable grant funding
• Are not be entitled to business rate relief grants
Clubs who employ between 10 and 249 employees could be eligible for grants up to £100k if they can demonstrate they:
• Have experienced in excess a 60% reduction in turnover since the first day of March
• Are not be eligible for business rate relief grants, or if they are, that amount would be deducted from their allocation from this fund
• Have a sustainable business plan to trade beyond the Covid-19 pandemic
• Confirm no future compulsory redundancies will be made as long as the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme is in place
• Are not pursuing any other form of Welsh Government non-repayable grant funding support
The eligibility criteria for the Fund has been updated by Welsh Government this week to now only include those organisations that are VAT registered. Please contact the WRU Helpdesk if you are ineligible for any of the above support.
The application process for businesses qualifying for financial support from the Economic Resilience Fund will open on Friday 17 April via the Business Wales website.
Insurance
After initially suspending all forms of rugby, including training, from Saturday 14th March to Monday 30th March, the WRU further confirmed the cancellation of the 2019/20 season for all rugby competitions on Friday 20th March.
The directive from the WRU was that all rugby activities including games, training etc. were to remain suspended until further notice and in view of this suspension of rugby activities we have been discussing the potential scenarios surrounding the additional cover placed by clubs for weekly benefits, in particular Senior players, which is no longer required.
We would like to assure clubs that we are continuing to work with our Brokers, AON and Insurers AVIVA in relation to the cancelled season. As soon as a decision is reached we will communicate directly with the affected clubs.
Coaching Support
Multiple webinars have now been produced with the fantastic support of community coaches including Rachel Taylor (Colwyn Bay RFC, senior men’s head coach), Jason Hyatt (Aberavon RFC, senior men’s head coach), Bobby Andrews (Senghenydd RFC, senior men’s head coach) and Lee Jones & Ieuan Randell (Barry RFC, youth coaches).
Another highlight to come will be Camilla Knight, Associate Professor in Sports Science at Swansea University will also be providing valuable insight on the topic of supporting parents
The webinars cover many topics of the game, with more being created every day the total now in production is in double figures.
These informative films are to be released every few days via the WRU Game Locker https://www.wrugamelocker.wales/ in a section entitled ‘Coaches Corner’ with notifications appearing regularly on the WRU Community twitter handle @wru_community.
Remembering Leighton Davies
Tributes have been pouring in for one of the unsung heroes of Welsh rugby, Leighton Davies, the former head coach and long standing PE lecturer at Cardiff College of Education who died, aged 83, at the weekend.
One of the most influential and important coaches in the national game for almost three decades, he nurtured dozens of Welsh internationals and British & Irish Lions, set the standards for thousands of schoolteachers and planted the coaching seed into the minds of hundreds more.
As the news of his death was announced, former students around the world began to recall the days when ‘Mr Davies’, affectionately known as ‘Nutty’, although never to his face, taught them. There was a Zoom conference called ‘Remembering Leighton Davies’ organised from Qatar, the former Cardiff, Brive and Wales A lock spent hours on the phone with former colleagues in his home in Brisbane and many others recalled the standards he set and the influence he had on them.
Born in Bridgend in 1937, Davies learned his rugby at Garw Grammar School and won three caps for the Welsh Secondary Schools in 1956 before heading to South Africa on tour. He played in the RAF, with his home town club of Bridgend and then at St Luke’s.
He played for the Devon throughout their 1959-60 County Championship campaign before returning to Wales and playing for Cardiff TC. He captained Bridgend to the unofficial Western Mail Championship in the 1965/66 season and played more than 300 times for the Brewery Field club.
He also played for the Combined Bridgend & Maesteg XV against Fiji in 1964 and went on to captain Maesteg in the 1970/71 season.
He coached the Welsh Colleges and Welsh Students, took the Crawshay’s to South Africa and was hugely influential with the Welsh Academicals as both coach and team manager, he also coached the Wales B team in Italy.
The current director of community rugby at the Welsh Rugby Union, Geraint John, was another player who learned so much under the expert tutelage of Davies at Cyncoed. He described him as “an unsung hero” of the game in Wales and a man for whom so many had massive respect.
“Each and every one of the players who went to Cyncoed will have their own ‘Nutty’ story. He had a massive influence on so many of us and always challenged us to strive to be better.
“He instilled huge confidence in us and always believed we could rise to any challenge and win any game. He set high standards and we respected him for that.”
News from the U20s
Despite the bitter disappointment of missing out on the World Rugby Junior Championships this summer, Wales U20 head coach Gareth Williams still believes there could be benefits for some of the players looking to make a major impact in regional rugby next season.
The postponement of the Italian tournament, scheduled to run from 28 June to 18 July, will now give the cream of Welsh rugby’s age-group talent time to fully immerse themselves in a full pre-season with their regions to challenge and physically develop themselves.
The Welsh squad were due to face Australia, New Zealand and Georgia in the biggest competition of their careers to date. The pandemic has also wiped-out the Wales U18 Six Nations campaign and has left their proposed trip to South Africa in August in the balance.
But Williams, who is in charge of the development and welfare of all players Under 23 in Wales, has urged all his youngsters to make the most of the extended training period they will now experience and to hit the ground running next season.
“The players have all come to terms with the disappointment of missing out on representing their country at a major tournament and have been very mature about it. I’ve been in contact with them all and told them to use this summer wisely,” said Williams.
“A large number have also taken up the offer of regular catch-ups over video calls regarding some work they are undertaking in their homes under isolation. The advantage they now have is being able to participate in a full pre-season campaign at their regions.
“For a few others it will give them extra time to get over injuries to ensure they are fit and firing for next season. Given the fact the U20 tournament had been moved back a few weeks we had factored in an off season break for the players post-Six Nations, allowing them to go straight into pre-season on their return from Italy.
“That was just another small example of the collaborative approach that has been established with the regions. The players were also earmarked for a further development phase around the autumn.
“Now they will be able to join in from the start and benefit from that. Despite missing out on a fantastic playing experience, we all realise it is down to a unique set of circumstances and there are still hugely positive interventions to put in for the players.”
Hear more from Gareth Williams on the WRU Podcast: www.wru.wales/audio/welsh-rugby-union-podcast-15-2020/
A player view
Lloyd Lewis has been talking to the WRU website about the abrupt end to the domestic season in a way players around the game will be able to empathise with.
The Pontypool winger was looking back on his club season, in the Specsavers National Championship which culminated in a recall to the Wales Sevens squad:
“I returned to Pontypool (after time on the Wales 7’s circuit) at the beginning of March to what I thought would be a promotion run-in. Instead, I was met with the news that the 2019-2020 had been cancelled with immediate effect. Although the WRU’s decision was absolutely necessary it was still a tough one to take.
“Promotion has been the goal for everyone at the club for years; from management, to players, volunteers and supporters.
“That being said, it’s most definitely not all doom and gloom. We can really take confidence from our performances throughout the season; we remained unbeaten in the league and fought hard to secure wins against some of the Premiership teams that had come down to the Championship. We’ve had plenty of set-backs as a club before and have bounced back every time.
“I feel that I speak for everyone at Pooler when I say we’re hungrier now to get back out there and establish ourselves in the Premiership…” read more from Lloyd at www.community.wru.wales
Wales women on the front line
Four women who flew the flag for Wales on the rugby field last season are now on the front line of the current national crisis as clinical NHS workers.
Cardiff Blues players Abbie Fleming, Megan Webb and Paige Randall along with Ospreys wing Angharad De Smet all made their Wales debuts last autumn but are now helping their country in an entirely different way as it battles to stop the spread and effects of coronavirus. Read more here: https://www.wru.wales/article/wales-women-flying-the-flag-on-the-front-line/
United in support of the NHS
And finally… Welsh rugby has now achieved a full-house in its support of the NHS at this time of need, with all four regions and the WRU providing facilities. The Ospreys’ training base at Llandarcy and Parc y Scarlets are both hosting temporary hospitals and Cardiff Arms Park is now part of the new medical complex established at Principality Stadium, whilst the WRU’s National Centre of Excellence at the Vale Resort in Hensol is also a field hospital and the Dragons’ home at Rodney Parade has become a Covid-19 testing centre.
Of course this pervasive support from the professional game is only a magnification of what clubs and their communities are doing around Wales, and it should be a source of great pride to us all that, with little co-ordination of thought necessary, we have universally united behind this most worthy endeavour. If anyone ever doubted the unique place Welsh rugby holds in the social infrastructure of our nation, they should no longer.
