Community rugby – current status

Although social gatherings of more than six people were banned in England from Monday 14 September and a number of local lockdown restrictions have been put in place in some areas of the country, the Government has confirmed that organised sports and activities that have been through return to play protocols can continue. With the exception of clubs impacted by local lockdown restrictions, we continue at Stage D on the Return to Community Rugby Roadmap. The rugby community can continue to organise non-contact fixtures with other clubs using Ready4Rugby, which you can read more about in the link below, and other touch rugby activity.

Limited and restricted contact rugby training can also be continued. Details of the permitted training activity are available in the return to contact training guidance link below.

Clubs should continue to follow current guidance of no more than 20 players per half pitch in training.

RFU guidance as well as Government Coronavirus (Covid-19) Guidelines must be followed

Contact Guidance
Ready4Rugby

Covid-19 Business Interruption Insurance

A decision was handed down by the High Court last week in favour of policyholders in the FCA business interruption test case. The FCA brought the case on behalf of policy holders against 8 insurers to try to resolve the lack of clarity in business interruption claims due to Covid-19. The decision considers 21 different policy wordings and could help clubs making claims under business interruption insurance.

Following the recent judgement, clubs that have/had business interruption insurance and affected claims should have been contacted by their Insurance Broker / Insurer as to how they intend to respond to the judgment. If clubs have not heard then it would be worthwhile making contact. Please note that the test case was not intended to encompass all possible disputes, but to resolve some of the key contractual uncertainties and causation issues to provide clarity for policy holders and insurers.

There is a chance that the judgement will be appealed but this does not stop policy holders seeking to settle their claims with the insurer before the outcome of any appeal is known.

Please find a link below to a document that has been provided by Howdens that gives further detail and information regarding this judgement – however please note that clubs should make contact with their own insurer or insurance broker direct if they don’t use Howdens

Read Document

Rugby community doing great things

Today we highlight some of the activities that took place over the Pitch Up for Rugby Weekend when rugby returned to more than 300 clubs across the country.

In addition to clubs helping their communities, we are now highlighting on englandrugby.com: clubs’ self-help initiatives, as well as activities to improve diversity and inclusion at clubs.

Mitsubishi Motors in the UK are proud supporters of the rugby volunteers across England who make up an integral part of the game. Help us recognise your work by sharing your club and individual stories and videos with veemontebello@rfu.com or patriciamowbray@rfu.com.

Click below to find out more about the Mitsubishi Motors Volunteer Recognition Programme

Pitch Up Weekend
Recognition Programme