Welcome Jason!
Last week we welcomed Jason Brisbane who has joined as our new CEO and who will take over from me on 1st September. Over the coming weeks he will be learning about the business aspects of our sport and meeting many of the partners who support us. He will also be looking to meet as many of you as he can and will be attending a number of the Big Rugby Return summer tournaments. As he thinks about his new role I know he will want to hear from you about what you would like to see from the sport in the coming years so if you do meet him take the opportunity to let him know.
Look After Our Clubs
Our current focus remains on doing all we can to help clubs get back to playing the game. Over twenty clubs are now back in action and many have moved on to Steps 2 and 3 of the 5 Step Plan. With government restrictions continuing to ease on the back of the successful vaccination programme we are optimistic that we can get back to a full schedule of competition soon. Our plan is to run the Big Rugby Return festivals in August, the Rugby Social Weekend for Paralympic discipline teams in September, and then start the WR5s league which will run once a month in September, October, and November. Most clubs enter both leagues and tell us that they only want one weekend per month of national competition along with the friendly matches that are being organised at a local level. The Super Series will start in January and run monthly until April. We have proposed a new format which will offer teams four weekends rather than three and also reduce the travel for some teams with a more regional based competition for Division 2 teams. The National Championships will be staged in May 2022. Alongside the Super Series we will run the new local league and this will also cater for the newer clubs who have not entered any competition before. The 2022 WR5s league will then start in June and run monthly from June to August. We really want to understand how we can best support clubs to get back to normality after this long period of inactivity. We hope that the safety measures we have put in place will give players and volunteers the confidence to get back to their clubs and we want to work with you where clubs find themselves in financial difficulty as a result of fundraising and sponsorship drying up. So please share your challenges with your RDO or email me direct and let’s see how we can support you. Last week I had my final board meeting and it was clear that the trustees are all absolutely committed to doing all they can to strengthen our club system and have provided clear direction to those of us leading the sport on what they want to see our focus being. You can see this direction in the new Business Plan under the ‘Strategic Goals’ section
Read the 2021/22 Business Plan
Ready for Tokyo
It’s around fifty days to go before the opening of the Paralympic Games and the GB team is into the final stretch of its preparations. It was great to see the team in action again at the recent Quad Nations against France and Denmark. As an event we can be really proud of how it was delivered – the first international wheelchair rugby tournament anywhere in the world for eighteen months. It was a complex evolution involving a number of external agencies from Public Health Leicester through to engaging our own COVID-19 and medical teams including an ambulance so that there could be no call on public health services other than in an emergency. The excellent attention to detail from Chris Walker who came in late as the Event Director ensured a trouble-free passage to and from airports for France and Denmark. The loss of international officials in the days leading up to the event provided a first opportunity for some of our domestic officials to step up and officiate at international level and they did really well. The hotel which we had sole use of was outstanding.
Understandably all teams were pretty rusty at the start of the tournament and although GB won its first three games there were a number of areas the coaches identified for further work and improvement. GB lost the second pool game to France in what was by their own admission a poor performance. This left all three teams on the same number of points but GB topped the group on try difference and so went straight through to the final. France played Denmark to win through to the final on Sunday. This was a very tight game and a much better performance from GB who now go into their final training camps focused on the areas they still need to work on.
The Quad Nations also provided invaluable opportunities for many of our officials. Congratulations to Dale Thompson and Simon Starr who both refereed international games for the first time and both achieved their Level 3 standard. Catriona Brown and Mary Nicholls were selected as table officials having successfully completed their development training so well done to both of them also and to Gary Spratt who officiated in a training capacity for the first time.
Ready for Paris
Barry Mason has now joined as Head of Performance Support & Science; he and I have had two days together going through the performance plan and identifying the immediate actions and he spent the week at the Quad Nations which was an opportunity to meet a number of the current staff and the athletes, many of whom he knows from his time at the Peter Harrison Centre. Barry has started working on his staff plan for the Paris cycle and reviewing the athlete squad. It’s important to remember that we are a year into the Paris cycle so we have to be ready to hit the ground running as soon as Tokyo is over, especially so with the European Championship to be held in Paris in February. To that end from September the identification and confirmation of the staff team and athlete squad for the Paris cycle will be a priority.
Paralympic Schedule
Finally we will put details of the wheelchair rugby competition on the website. The good news is that all GB games will be covered live by Channel 4 and among others Steve Brown will be commentating. Our opening group match is against Canada on 25th August, followed by New Zealand on 26th and finishing the group stage with the USA on 27th.
David Pond
