RFU confirm plans for NCA Cup competition

Nov 13th, 2020

Given that there will be no league rugby this season, the Rugby Football Union have put into place a cup competition for NCA clubs to give our teams a competitive environment when we are able to resume playing contact rugby.

No, cynicism aside, hopefully this means I'll be able to wander down to Hinckley to catch a game at some point.

Better than nowt.

Lets say this player is "clean" on Friday : 

What tests are going to be done pre game on both sides to make sure they are all clean on the day and the next and more inportant point is, what if somebody catches this virus from a game on Sat?

Cannot work because of it for 14 days, you then add in the other 30+ players and officials to that via track and trace . Or the virus gets worse and the player dies from it. How does the RFU or NCA insurance stack up or what is in place to protect the player.

Please don't think Im putting water on the fire, I'm not, John I has done a great job in getting this to the table and yes we do all want get back to playing, yes we all want a beer on a Saturday afternoon whilst watching the game we love, but the risk reward is far too great!

Does every player sign a disclaimer before they play, can see a few wives and girlfriends having a say on that, especially players that have families!

Because we are not the Elite game there will be no full-scale testing. Players will have to self-certify, as they did when we were training before this lockdown. In this way we are no different from the Allianz League which is already playing. As I understand it, provided all matches are played under the agreed RFU protocol then they are covered by the RFU insurance.

It’s obviously a risk and some Clubs may choose not to take the risk and so won’t enter the Cup. Many others will and will carefully assess the risk. So far we have had two positive tests in the 1st XV squad, one a teacher, and have not had to apply self-isolation because there was no close contact under the RFU flowchart. Inevitably there will be close contact in matches so that may result in some self-isolation requirements. Clubs and players have to make judgement calls and follow the rules.

London & South East DOC are working on competitions for Level 5 down, as well as 2nd XVs. As to ground capacity, most Clubs at Levels 3-5 have had Local Authority assessments so have a known number. Ours is 1800 so we will be able to have up to 600, more than our average over the last two seasons!

Robb: There is no such league as National 3 and its not under the NCA

Kent have all the details and have pulled together two groups of 6 sides from Prem s/e and London1 from what I understand.With the top 4 going into a semi then final.