The 2021-2022 Season

With the further easing of public health restrictions in England, the RFU have sanctioned a return to full contact rugby, with fixtures in the community game allowed to take place under full laws to be permitted from August 7th 2021. A full league season is currently planned to commence on September 4th.

WIth this is mind, our attention and thoughts return to rugby after an 18 month hiatus.

Availability

We have a number of pre-season friendlies already on Whos the Ref for August and the bulk of the league fixtures start in September. Please put your availability on WtR for both August and September (and beyond if possible).

Law Trials and Variations

Please note that World Rugby have introduced a number of global law trials for the season. Full details are available of the World Rugby website. In addition to these law trials, the RFU have saught a number of clarifications from World Rugby, which are in this document. (Please note that although the “Cavalry Charge” is no longer defined in the law book, World Rugby have advised this should be dealt with as dangerous play.)

For all age grade rugby, a high tackle is above the armpits. This extends the exisiting regulation for U9-U14 and is now universal for age grade rugby in England. There has been no change to the laws for adult rugby. Please also remember the world rugby high tackle framework, which has again been updated and refined furter.

Headcase and Laws

It is recommended that all members of the society re-complete the HEADCASE concussion education module and World Rugby laws exam ahead of their return to refereeing.

The RFU ran a number of online seminars over the lockdown periods which have been archived and are available to watch on demand.

World Rugby have once again updated the head contact sanctioning framework. Wayne Barnes has worked with RFU to create a 40 minute video on the process.

DBS and GMS

All referees who referee age group rugby now require a DBS check. The management committee recommend that all active referees are DBS checked and would like to thank all of those who have completed their checks already. If you have not yet done so, please contact Den to start the process (glosboy937@yahoo.co.uk) otherwise you cannot be appointed to schools or age grade fixtures.

To help us do this we would be obliged if people can logon to GMS (if you know your username and password) and buy a membership to CUDRRS (Free) this will allow us to get access to your details and get the DBS process started. If you need help with this, please contact Ben (cudrrssec@gmail.com).