RFU Update following Council Meeting
An RFU Council meeting was held today (Friday 16 February) with votes held on the following topics:
Adult Player Registration launch for the 2024-25 season
The introduction of Minimum Operating Standards in a relaunched Tier 2 league
Re-appointment of RFU Board Directors for a second term
A year-long extension to the term of Co-Opted Council Members
Outcomes are detailed below:
Adult Player Registration
Council approved the launch of Adult Player Registration in the 2024/25 season. Adult Player Registration digitises our current registration process, moving the responsibility away from volunteers to individual players and extends it to cover all players, improving our data and hence ability to manage the health of the game. This follows the successful role out of age-grade registration in the 2023-24 season. The move to game-wide registration is intended to benefit the whole rugby community and brings rugby union in line with the majority of other Unions and other sports where this is common practice.
Community Game Future
Council spent 90 minutes discussing and progressing the community game future work which is seeking to establish RFU priorities and investment plan to support the community game over next ten years.
Tier 2 Update
Following a meeting of all the Championship clubs on 8th February and an update to Council today, the RFU and Championship have agreed a revised timeline to progress plans around the development of Tier 2. RFU Council voted, today, in favour of the principle of introducing Minimum Operating Standards for rugby’s second tier, as part of plans for the growth strategy of the league.
Between now and Friday 29 March, the RFU and the Championship will work together to further agree the detail within the Minimum Operating Standards (MOS), establish a governance structure for the league, confirm the number of teams in the league and discuss promotion/relegation mechanics within the structures.
Following working group meetings between now and the end of March, an update will be provided to Council at its April meeting.
We would like to thank all National League clubs who have expressed an interest in being part of a relaunched second tier.
Re-appointment of Board Directors
RFU Council ratified the Board’s approval of the re-appointment of Tom Ilube CBE as Chair, and Polly Williams as Independent Non-Executive Director on the RFU’s Board of Directors. Their second terms will each run from 1 August 2024 to 31 July 2027. This decision will be ratified at the RFU AGM in June.
Co-Opted Council Member Extension
An extension for a further year until 31 July 2025 of the current co-opted members, was approved by RFU Council following a recommendation from the Council Nominations Committee, should those individuals wish to. The co-options followed a recruitment exercise and as part of the process to widen the inclusion and diversity of Council.
