Find information about our Volunteers and what you need to do to become a volunteer.
With drought conditions forecast to continue for several more weeks, there are a few things for clubs, players and coaches to consider.
Pitches
Player safety is paramount, and clubs must assess whether a pitch is safe to use before training or matches. This applies to hard, dry pitches just as much as frozen or waterlogged pitches. From our full guidance on managing rugby pitches in drought conditions, to our NTP Surface Risk Assessment, we have a number of resources that can help you manage pitches during this time.
Incidents causing injury tend to be higher during the first few weeks of the season, and it is possible that harder pitches combined with physical readiness may contribute to this.
There are some simpler steps you can take to help mitigate these risks:
· When pitches are hard, the focus should be to reduce/modify impact exposure while still developing contact skills. Rather than simply carrying on with normal full-contact sessions increase the use of ACTIVATE spending more time on neck, shoulder, trunk and lower-limb preparation.
· Avoid practices that involve players regularly going to ground, only practice full tackling on crash mats and focus on body management, footwork, tracking and replace full contact with wrestling/grappling.
· On very hard ground consider removing/reducing the number of diving to score and full tackle-to-ground practices, repeated tackles, falls, rucks or any instance where multiple bodies hit the ground and high numbers of contested lifted lineouts.
· Rugby 365 artificial grass pitches (AGPs) are now available for hire, offering year-round rugby facilities ideal for full contact activity, including tackling, rucking and mauling. Clubs can find and book AGPs here.