The sport’s governing body has scrapped its non-professional-league plans for the 2020/21 campaign, saying that a competitive season is ‘no longer feasible’ as the Covid-19 pandemic approaches a second peak. The decision affects all clubs from National One down in the men’s game [Level 3], and every women’s club in England outside the Premiership.
Reds officials are still awaiting confirmation from Twickenham regarding plans for the next Championship campaign. The RFU’s latest statement said the second professional tier remained ‘on course’ to restart in January, although that came before news that England was set to enter a second, month-long lockdown from this Thursday.
‘They have said there will be no league rugby but there may be a situation in March or April, if the health situation improves, where localised rugby could be played,’ said Reds president Cliff Chipperfield, head of the club’s amateur arm. ‘But the possibility for us to do that will be limited. It’s all very well for a team like Winchester, for example, to pop down the road to play Basingstoke but contact rugby for us would depend on travel and Jersey being able to have teams come in.
‘In the summer I didn’t think we’d get any contact rugby before Christmas anyway. We were hoping for January, but that was when the situation was improving on the mainland. As soon as it started getting worse again we knew there would be a further postponement.’
Full story in Monday’s JEP.
