Fylde Rugby season will not start before January

The rugby union season for Fylde RFC will not begin until January at the earliest.
Fylde face a break of at least 10 months between league gamesFylde face a break of at least 10 months between league games
Fylde face a break of at least 10 months between league games
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The Rugby Football Union has confirmed that no leagues will get under way in 2020 at any level below the Championship.

Fylde’s 30-game National Two North campaign was scheduled to start on September 5. Based on scenarios previously published by the RFU, the most matches Fylde can probably hope for this season are 15 – playing each of the other teams in their league once between January and May.

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However, the RFU has ruled out any league action until ‘stage F’ on its roadmap for a return to rugby is reached.

The state of the pandemic currently prevents the game moving beyond ‘stage D’, which permits only touch rugby matches and limited training with contact.

An RFU statement says: “The RFU continues to be in active dialogue with government about moving to ‘stage E’ on the roadmap. Should we reach this point before Christmas, competitive friendly matches could commence.

“The adult and age grade competitions groups will be making recommendations to governance on what they can do to ensure that any competitions from January are meaningful, including whether to make changes to the structured season.

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“Governance also agreed that any decision to suspend promotion and relegation for the 2020/21 season would be referred to Council once the nature of the competitions is known.”

Fylde’s senior squad began pre-season training in August and the immediate question facing the club is whether that should continue or be suspended until the start of the season is closer.

The RFU announcement was no surprise to head coach Warren Spragg, who said: “January was always talked about as the most likely starting time, though there had been realistic hope for October or November until the increase in transmissions made that impossible.

“As a squad we are a bit ahead of where I expected to be because we have been able to do more of the normal components of training and play bigger-sized games of 10 v 10, so it has felt a bit more like rugby training.

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“We now have to make a decision about whether to continue training or have some time away.

“Hopefully with a January start we will be allowed to organise some friendlies for December and we know the RFU are working very hard.”