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Midlands club rugby left reeling as onfield tragedy strikes

Twickenham Stadium /Press Association

Rugby union in England is today mourning the tragic loss of 27-year-old Evesham RFC winger Jack Jeffery.

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The prolific try scorer was badly injured in the act of scoring during his club’s Midlands Two West (South) away game at Warwickshire’s Balsall & Berkswell.

After being rushed to Coventry’s University Hospital Walsgrave, reports suggest that Jeffery passed away while undergoing emergency surgery.

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Worcestershire-based Evesham issued a statement on the club’s website this morning under the headlines: ‘Today we are at half-mast’ and ‘Too good even for the All Blacks‘ – the club’s nickname.

“It is with immeasurable sadness that we have to report the tragic loss of our beloved Jack Jeffery following our Seniors League fixture at Berkswell & Balsall yesterday 12th February.”

“Jack was adding another try to his phenomenal record and during the act and subsequent challenge of scoring he was injured.

“He was taken to Walsgrave Hospital where he tragically lost his fight.

“A more committed, loyal ‘Clubman’ is hard to find. He would often return from London for training and was always at the heart of club activities.

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“He served his club, his teammates and the county with distinction and provided much satisfaction to the club supporters in knowing exactly where the whitewash was.

“As a club, we have been overwhelmed by the messages of support and goodwill from the rugby community. Jack was calm, respected and highly thought of.

“Our club and community have lost such a bright light.

“On behalf of Evesham Rugby, I thank everyone whom supported Jack in his moment of need yesterday and for all the messages of support I have received from other clubs and the North Mids Union.

“As a mark of respect our club is closed today. We fly at half-mast. Please take a moment today in your prayers and take your moment of silence for Jack, his family, loved ones and friends.”

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According to BBC Hereford and Worcester Jack’s father Glenn said his son died “doing what he loved the most, playing rugby.”

It quotes Glenn Jeffery’s statement from Facebook: “It is with great sadness that I need to let you know we lost our beloved son Jack yesterday.”

He described him as the “most kind hearted, generous and beautiful son who enriched the lives of everyone who was lucky to know and have met him”.

“He will be so missed by his family and friends,” he said.

The messages of support include Jeffery’s former schoolmate and club colleague Elliott Stooke who now plays in the second row for Wasps.

“Thoughts are with the family of Jack Jeffery and everyone at EveshamRFC this morning. An old school colleague and team mate of mine. #RIP”

Jimmy Gopperth is another Wasp with strong Midlands junior rugby connections after spending five years as head coach at Evesham’s league rivals Nuneaton Old Edwardians.

Jeffery had represented North Midlands in the County Championship and they have been quick to add to the tributes.

“It is with immeasurable sadness that we have to report the tragic loss of North Midlands player Jack Jeffery from Evesham Rugby Club yesterday 12th February 2022.

“The whole of North Mids sends their sincere condolences to all those who knew Jack and affected by this tragic loss.”

And the sport’s governing body in England have also paid their respects.

Evesham’s local Gallagher Premiership club Worcester Warriors also passed on their best wishes.

And Worcester RFC Chairman Steve Lloyd summed up the sentiments of Midlands clubs perfectly.

“All at Worcester RFC offer thoughts, prayers, love and heartfelt condolences in honour of Jack Jeffery, his family and friends and all at Evesham RFC.

“We stand with you and are here to call on if ever needed. Shocking heartbreaking news. RIP Jack.” 💔💔

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1 Comment
I
Ian 1039 days ago

RIP.

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J
JW 3 hours ago
‘The problem with this year’s Champions Cup? Too many English clubs’

Like I've said before about your idea (actually it might have been something to do with mine, I can't remember), I like that teams will a small sustainable league focus can gain the reward of more consistent CC involvement. I'd really like the most consistent option available.


Thing is, I think rugby can do better than footballs version. I think for instance I wanted everyone in it to think they can win it, where you're talking about trying to make so the worst teams in it are not giving up when they are so far off the pace that we get really bad scorelines (when that and giving up to concentrate on the league is happening together). I know it's not realistic to think those same exact teams are going to be competitive with a different model but I am inclined to think more competitive teams make it in with another modem. It's a catch 22 of course, you want teams to fight to be there next year, but they don't want to be there next year when theres less interest in it because the results are less interesting than league ones. If you ensure the best 20 possible make it somehow (say currently) each year they quickly change focus when things aren't going well enough and again interest dies. Will you're approach gradually work overtime? With the approach of the French league were a top 6 mega rich Premier League type club system might develop, maybe it will? But what of a model like Englands were its fairly competitive top 8 but orders or performances can jump around quite easily one year to the next? If the England sides are strong comparatively to the rest do they still remain in EPCR despite not consistently dominating in their own league?


So I really like that you could have a way to remedy that, but personally I would want my model to not need that crutch. Some of this is the same problem that football has. I really like the landscape in both the URC and Prem, but Ireland with Leinster specifically, and France, are a problem IMO. In football this has turned CL pool stages in to simply cash cow fixtures for the also ran countries teams who just want to have a Real Madrid or ManC to lose to in their pool for that bumper revenue hit. It's always been a comp that had suffered for real interest until the knockouts as well (they might have changed it in recent years?).


You've got some great principles but I'm not sure it's going to deliver on that hard hitting impact right from the start without the best teams playing in it. I think you might need to think about the most minimal requirement/way/performance, a team needs to execute to stay in the Champions Cup as I was having some thougt about that earlier and had some theory I can't remember. First they could get entry by being a losing quarter finalist in the challenge, then putting all their eggs in the Champions pool play bucket in order to never finish last in their pool, all the while showing the same indifference to their league some show to EPCR rugby now, just to remain in champions. You extrapolate that out and is there ever likely to be more change to the champions cup that the bottom four sides rotate out each year for the 4 challenge teams? Are the leagues ever likely to have the sort of 'flux' required to see some variation? Even a good one like Englands.


I'd love to have a table at hand were you can see all the outcomes, and know how likely any of your top 12 teams are going break into Champions rubyg on th back it it are?

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f
fl 6 hours ago
‘The problem with this year’s Champions Cup? Too many English clubs’

"Right, so even if they were the 4 worst teams in Champions Cup, you'd still have them back by default?"

I think (i) this would literally never happen, (ii) it technically couldn't quite happen, given at least 1 team would qualify via the challenge cup, so if the actual worst team in the CC qualified it would have to be because they did really well after being knocked down to the challenge cup.

But the 13th-15th teams could qualify and to be fair I didn't think about this as a possibility. I don't think a team should be able to qualify via the Champions Cup if they finish last in their group.


Overall though I like my idea best because my thinking is, each league should get a few qualification spots, and then the rest of the spots should go to the next best teams who have proven an ability to be competitive in the champions cup. The elite French clubs generally make up the bulk of the semi-final spots, but that doesn't (necessarily) mean that the 5th-8th best French clubs would be competitive in a slimmed down champions cup. The CC is always going to be really great competition from the semis onwards, but the issue is that there are some pretty poor showings in the earlier rounds. Reducing the number of teams would help a little bit, but we could improve things further by (i) ensuring that the on-paper "worst" teams in the competition have a track record of performing well in the CC, and (ii) by incentivising teams to prioritise the competition. Teams that have a chance to win the whole thing will always be incentivised to do that, but my system would incentivise teams with no chance of making the final to at least try to win a few group stage matches.


"I'm afraid to say"

Its christmas time; there's no need to be afraid!

120 Go to comments
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