Internal League Clubs Player Movement

It would appear that the 'policing' of player movement within a single club running several league sides, is to be left to internal coaching decisions, with any issues being monitored by the RFU for review, under new proposals being considered by our governing body, unless of course I'm mistaken ?

In leagues where lower teams are currently playing the issue is not so much player safety as teams being of unexpected strength due to not being a genuine 2nd, 3rd or whatever XV. The solution we have tried to use for this in Eastern Counties has been to ensure that lower XV fixtures are always scheduled on days when higher XVs also have games - the fixture matrices are set up to make that the case. But on days when there are exceptions to this - due to a fixture being postponed, the higher XVs opposition calling off or an odd number of teams in the league so a team being left without them, then we often find that what purports to be a 2nd XV is in fact made up largely of 1st XV players. This is unfair on both the opposition and the own clubs 2nd XV who might find themselves without a game or with limited game time. There is nothing that we are aware of being proposed in regulations to manage this within the RFU leagues. I await with interest the first time a club swaps their 1st XV and 2nd XV over in a pair of league matches to secure league position for the 2nds when the 1sts supposedly have 'nothing to play for'. Given that we see examples of teams bending the rules this way to gain an edge in a level 10 or 11 league, I think it's only a matter of time before it happens at Level 7.

SmilingD wrote: In leagues where lower teams are currently playing the issue is not so much player safety as teams being of unexpected strength due to not being a genuine 2nd, 3rd or whatever XV. The solution we have tried to use for this in Eastern Counties has been to ensure that lower XV fixtures are always scheduled on days when higher XVs also have games - the fixture matrices are set up to make that the case. But on days when there are exceptions to this - due to a fixture being postponed, the higher XVs opposition calling off or an odd number of teams in the league so a team being left without them, then we often find that what purports to be a 2nd XV is in fact made up largely of 1st XV players. This is unfair on both the opposition and the own clubs 2nd XV who might find themselves without a game or with limited game time. There is nothing that we are aware of being proposed in regulations to manage this within the RFU leagues. I await with interest the first time a club swaps their 1st XV and 2nd XV over in a pair of league matches to secure league position for the 2nds when the 1sts supposedly have 'nothing to play for'. Given that we see examples of teams bending the rules this way to gain an edge in a level 10 or 11 league, I think it's only a matter of time before it happens at Level 7.

The Sussex Cricket league has rules covering thiis - when the first team game is cancelled only 2 players who played in the previous 1st team game can play in the 2nd team. This filters its way down a club's playing teams. This works well but doesn't stop a first team being weakened to strengthen a 2nd team who might have an important game when both play.

Unfortunately, this is difficult to legislate against as who can say players being dropped are not on merit?

Also if 4 players are missing from the first team one week, the four players who get elevated from the second team for that week cannot be stopped from returning to the 2nd team the following week.

Also as an addendum, level 3 clubs tend to build squads. The 2nd team is merely a starting point for the streaming of those squads. A 2nd team that starts a game in September will look markedly different to one that starts a game in April. 5-10 players may well have played regularly for the 1s, so again if the RFU want to cater for all players and give them meaningful, local fixtures they should perhaps have been more attuned to this in their review.

And this is a National League forum so most responses are from people whose clubs are at Level 3 & 4..

Cam, my point is more about Level 3 and 4 teams not stacking lower sides....

ST,

SKalpy wrote: GJ, maybe I am being a bit thick here but are you saying that 1st XV players at Level 3 & 4 will be drafted into 3rd and 4th XV's to gain an advantage cos if you are you are talking b*llocks. Most teams at that level do not run a 2nd XV per se but run a squad (my club had a senior squad of around 42 last season) that will cover the 1st and 2nd XV fixture list. If a player is not selected for the 20 needed for the 1st XV then they play in the 2s. They are in the squad because the coaches hope they will be competitive in the 1s (we had at least 6 youngsters who stood up to the plate really well last season) but training as a squad and playing in the 2s is not loading that side.  Smiling D said it might not happen at levels 3 & 4 but happens lower down the league structure. That may be so but why post that in the National League 2 forum?