The past few weeks have been a most difficult time for our WP Club Rugby members during the COVID-19 pandemic and even more so during the Lockdown in South Africa. Our members were all eager and ready for the 2020 season but unfortunately, these plans have to be shelved until further notice as we await further announcements from the government.
The club rugby department has developed various scenarios for when the season could possibly start and remain positive that club rugby will still be played this season.
By all accounts, our members remain fired up for the 2020 season as we see even more player home training and coaches monitoring in play. Some clubs have had their strength and conditioning coaches send their players training programmes online and are monitoring their activity via WhatsApp. Additionally, many coaches have been discussing the nutrition habits of the players and are monitoring player weight management.
To support the clubs’ teams and player training activities our coaches management team has sent many of the clubs the SuperSport Fitness Challenge programme.
The programme is based on the same strength and fitness programmes our WPRFU XV players have been using before the lockdown as they prepared for the SuperSport Challenge. The Supersport Rugby Challenge fixtures for 2020 in Cape Town was originally scheduled for 25 April (Charles Morkel Stadium), 01 May (Avonwood Stadium), 10 May (Florida Park) and 30 May (Faure Street, Paarl). We remain positive that the competition will continue after the lifting of the current lockdown on other future dates, but confirm that the venues as above will continue to host these matches.
The past few weeks have moved our working method into a very electronic process as we now do regular online conference calls to upskill our coaches and management, many of these under the auspices of SA Rugby. In due course, we will compile this knowledge bank and pass the structured information onto our club structures.
Additional administration has continued on the Scrumit system and our clubs are reminded to upload their various club administrative documents onto the Summit system. These include the 2019 financial statements, updated constitution, minutes of AGM’s held, and an updated list of their current Executive committee.
Clubs are also reminded to submit their two candidates for referees. These applications should be sent to [email protected]
In addition, clubs are again reminded to continue with the registration of players on the Scrumit system, especially the clubs that indicated they will be participating in the women’s competition for 2020.
Clubs are also reminded to continue exploring the relationship with African Bank as our partnership continues.
On a final note, we remind all our WP Club Rugby members to stay isolated and comply with all the current health and safety guidelines issued by the government.