Holt in black put up three men's XVs on Saturday, but they're unusual in that they can do so. Credit: Holt RFC
The grassroots clubs that have trained England's World Cup squad members are struggling to field a unified senior men's side this season.
Nearly every club surveyed by Telegraph Sport reported that number The number of senior men's teams they have been able to field has declined sharply over the last decade, although youth teams remain stable and there has been an increase in the number of female players.
When veteran Dan Cole first started at South Leicester, they hosted three Men's XVs. After an ill-fated period of semi-professionalism, they are now at the bottom rung of the English league pyramid. «For us, success this year will be if we can meet our commitments in our RFU league and put out a team with spares,» said Wayne Marsden, chairman of the board. “It takes 45 players to manage an adult team. The guys don't play 35 games a season like we used to. Right now it's 10-15 games and they think that's enough and that makes it very difficult.”
A similar story happened in Yorkshire with West Park Leeds, Danny Kare's childhood club. They used 62 players to manage their single men's team, whereas they had previously managed three men's XVs. Almost all of their second matches of the XV season were cancelled. Their experience is typical of many clubs, with many older players not returning from the pandemic and younger players much less willing to play regularly.
“Covid has stopped the arrival of people. They had a Saturday-Saturday-Saturday routine, and once you break that routine, it will be very difficult to restore it, ”said club captain Martin Astley. “What is really difficult is to keep our Colts players after they go to university. Many young guys ask: «Do you pay?» You used to play and then you could get some money for a beer. Now the priorities of this younger generation have changed.”
“Rugby is no longer a bastion of men”
Sleaford in Lincolnshire, Ollie Chessum's childhood club, and Bradford on Avon, which was produced by Henry Arundell, plan to create a unified men's team this season, although both are backed by a thriving junior and women's section, which has led to a reprioritization. «Rugby is no longer a bastion of men and we have tried to make our club family friendly by ensuring that the committee is made up of representatives from all sections of the club,» said Sleaford president Andrew Crawford. Crewe, where Tom Curry started, will field two senior men's and women's teams next season.
In fact, not everything is so gloomy. Beckenham, who produced Elliot Daly, hopes to expand its youth section from 700 to 1,000 players even as the number of full-time senior men's teams has dropped from eight to two in a decade. Another Kent team, the Sevenoaks, who started back-court Ben Earle, also has a booming youth section.
But the overall picture, drawn by conversations with more than a dozen clubs, is an inexorable decline in the number of adult male players, slowed only by the dedication and enthusiasm of club volunteers. This is in line with studies showing a drop in the number of active adult players in England from 259,600 in 2016 to 95,100 at the end of last season.
RFU's «Targeted Intervention and Support»
Steve Granger, RFU Executive Director of Rugby Development, said: “While rugby for children, juniors and women is flourishing, grown men are facing the same challenges we see in other unions and sports. There are still many adult male players who want to play 25 games in a season, but more players want to play less often, so clubs need to increase their squads, which affects the number of teams. Covid and 18 months without contact rugby have also exacerbated these problems.
“Last season we identified 160 clubs with low completion rates and through targeted intervention and support we helped increase completion rates by 16 per cent. We will continue to provide funding and support campaigns to help clubs attract and retain players.
“We are currently undertaking extensive work to review the future of the game for the next ten years so that we can prioritize our significant investment in support of the rugby clubs of the future. The goal is to get more people to play and to reinforce the valuable role that clubs play in the local community. The results of this collaboration will form the basis of a 10-year investment plan, which will be published next spring.
“Over the summer, more than 5,000 people attended 182 tackle safety workshops, and this season we have already received 13,000 orders for rugby training courses. And with the senior season kicking off this weekend, clubs are reporting good numbers.”
0209 England World Cup, by school type 0209 District youth squads England 2023 World Junior Club Championship squad Success at the World Cup will be a blow to the amateur game
By Ben Coles
The first weekend of a new club season means a lot: finding those socks that have not been washed, dusting various fixtures and accessories in the club building after several months of calm, pre-checking the condition of the knees and back. Unfortunately, some clubs will also have a player count to see who didn't return from last season.
While some players are returning to community rugby union following the closure of play during the pandemic, many in the senior game have chosen not to.
In conversations with several clubs linked to the England World Cup team , this week the general theme was that although the junior sections are flourishing and women's teams are popping up all over the country, the number of male players continues to fall.
There are pleasant exceptions. The Holt RFC, which helped create Ben Youngs and Freddie Steward, now has enough players to field three teams each week, something they didn't have before Covid. While increasing the number of players at one club becomes somewhat redundant when the number of local rivals continues to dwindle, whether it be because clubs have already merged or potentially will in the future, leading to players entering the second or third XV tournament. experienced unattractive long trips to weekend matches.
As Rob Hughes, Holt's chairman, explained: “We don't want to lose other youth clubs because it will inevitably affect us. If we don't have 13 matches, then we don't have a third team, which means you have two teams and all of a sudden you become a club that can only manage the first team. And you are on a slippery slope to zero.»
«Because of Covid, people had other obligations.»
There is no one obvious reason or quick fix. A couple of years ago, players in their 30s were mulling over the prospect of maybe another season, maybe two, but then the pandemic hit and their time was up. Young players, accustomed to the routine of playing matches every Saturday, suddenly found that they had enough free time to pursue other interests.
Dave Fox of Thornbury RFC, where Billy and Mako Vunipola played as juniors, explains: “One or two players eventually returned, but they returned without the same enthusiasm. They had other obligations. One player who never missed a game played just six games last season, not because of an injury, but because of other opportunities. Covid has had a big impact on us.”
As for the impact of the slide pitch change on public play, which was announced earlier this year with outrage, it's still too early to tell what effect it will have on players who choose not to return. This will be a discussion in November when the World Cup ends and time is given to make changes to the law.
It is noteworthy that those players and coaches who, with the best of intentions, approached changing the height of the tackle during pre-season matches, told Telegraph Sport that although players' technique in the first halves of matches was generally good as fatigue set in after half-time, the number of fouls increased, resulting in more yellow cards.
England's World Cup campaign is key
Of course, there is a way to bring back the numbers and boost the enthusiasm for the sport in England: the men's competition team did well at the World Cup.
This year's results under the leadership of Steve Borthwick, who took office in January and has so far been unable to turn the tide, allow suggest that this may be unrealistic. Yet the impact of England's triumph in 2003 and, to a lesser extent, its passage to the final four years ago, has been significant, encouraging children and adults alike to take up the sport.
Six Nations could become an annual event. institution, but the World Cup is different: 48 matches are available free-to-air on ITV, and double and triple headers are given on the weekends to keep fans old and new off the sofas.
The chance that England will competitive in this tournament, was undermined by a defeat to Fiji in the final warm-up match, which was not helped by the pompous style of play. And yet their attractiveness is favorable.
There is certainly an intention to develop this sport, either through the initiatives of the RFU or through clubs. RFC North Ribblesdale in Settle, North Yorkshire — England prostitute Jack Walker's first club — deserves credit for hiring an outside company to work in local schools to promote both the club and the game.
Will any success in England. that would be enough to stop male players from leaving the sport, who knows. But there is the next generation waiting for inspiration, waiting to hook on to a figure like Johnny Wilkinson 20 years ago, with the hope that these players will then stay in rugby as they work their way through the age groups towards foal selection. – where under-17s and under-18s merge into one – and beyond.
Dan Cole's former side, South Leicester, are struggling to fill their Colts squad. They won't be the only club either. Suddenly, England's success on the pitch seems more important than we first thought.
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