SRU goes local with plan for club rugby's return

Leagues to be merged and play in regional “clusters” as union hopes for 31 October restart

Top men's and women's clubs at the launch in September 2019 which would be ended by the Covid-19 pandemic. Picture: Alan Harvey/SRU/SNS

The Scottish Rugby Union has confirmed the return of grassroots rugby in Scotland for season 2020/21 as the governing body looks to get the domestic and schools game back up and running following the coronavirus shutdown.

After a summer of consultation the SRU Council has authorised a separate series of competitions designed to support teams returning to the field to play against neighbours, local rivals or smaller clusters of teams and made recommendations to the Board.

An SRU statement said: “The competitions vary slightly from one another and take account of the feedback received from the clubs, teams and players involved, as well as the Scottish Rugby Council’s recommendations.

“The Tennent’s Premiership with National League Division 1, and National League Division 2 with National League Division 3 teams, will be split across two competitions culminating in three finals at BT Murrayfield.

“The Women’s Tennent’s Premiership and Women’s National League Division 1 teams will participate in a single competition, which will also culminate in two finals at BT Murrayfield.

“Men’s and Women’s Regional Division teams will participate in a series of regional or local competitions. Scottish Rugby’s official beer partner, Tennent’s, will continue their support of club rugby through their involvement in these competitions.

“For Season 2020/21 boys’ and girls’ schools and youth rugby will also be different as we support young players’ return to the game, and this will continue to be supported by Mitsubishi Motors.

“Following confirmation of the competition formats, work is now under way to finalise the fixture schedule and underlying competition rules.”

The SRU said that fixtures will be released following the next Scottish Government update on 10 September and “anticipates returning to competitive rugby on Saturday 31 October 2020 - however this is still only an indicative date and is subject to change as public health information continues to be issued from the Scottish Government”.

SRU president, Ian Barr, said: “On behalf of the Council I’d like to thank everyone from across the game who shared their views and insight to enable us to have a clear competition structure at every level, reaching the whole country, for rugby to resume when safe to do so.

"I know there has been a lot of hard work undertaken to reach this positive outcome against the backdrop of Covid-19 and while we can’t please everybody, as a Council we have listened and applied the principles of fairness and consistency throughout to develop a blended model of competition which we believe provides the right solution to the challenges we face.

“It is our best chance to kick-start Scottish rugby clubs back into action this season and I wish everyone well in the months ahead as we look forward to rugby being played again.”

Further information on the Return to Rugby road map can be found at www.scottishrugby.org/clubs-and-schools/return-to-rugby

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