While we are 3 weeks into the minis and juniors' season, and our Kingsmead is again filled with players from u6s through to senior Women on a Sunday morning, this Saturday saw the return of all senior men’s leagues.

I want to start by saying I am incredibly proud that we as a club fielded players in 3 senior men’s teams this weekend. Our 1st XV travelled to Reading Abbey with 17 men, our 2nd XV to Reading with 10, and we hosted Bracknell with our 3rd XV at home with 10 men also.

I’d like to thank our 2nd team manager Toni Flore and club stalwart Steve Swindells for looking after our 2nd XV and 3rd XV respectively, without them, those games would not have gone ahead, and circa 55 players would not have played rugby yesterday.

With the Game On approach, we played a 12-a-side game vs Reading, and 15-a-side vs Bracknell, a huge thank you to both clubs for helping us facilitate these games and agreeing to play the games despite us not having 15 men.

This comes in a time where the sport has seen a huge reduction in participating members across the country, with many clubs losing teams season on season. This seems to be an issue at almost every club I speak with, with Covid and opportunities to try different pastimes being the main culprit.

It is a worrying time for rugby and its participation at grassroots level.

The advocation of the Game On principle of playing games when teams do not have the “traditional” rugby team/squad by the RFU, is an incredibly positive movement. The rugby people of this nation need to begin to understand that rugby is no longer exclusively a 15-a-side game played on Saturday afternoons. If we embrace this, playing 10 or 12-a-side games when clubs do not have enough players available, or agreeing to move games to Friday nights so as not to clash with other commitments, then we will get closer to combatting the decline in players playing rugby on any given weekend.

The way people choose to spend their free time is changing, and we as clubs must change to reflect this, to encourage as many people as possible to stay involved in the game we all love.

I will be looking to reach out to other clubs locally and further afield to discuss ways for us to safeguard numbers in rugby, and I’d encourage anyone, at any club, to share their ideas with me to keep people involved in rugby and our clubs.

England Rugby - Game On

For more on how Game On works please watch the video below, and to see how it has benefitted other clubs, please head to the link below for the Game On page on the England Rugby website.

https://www.englandrugby.com/participation/playing/game-on