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Premiership return on track following 'Rugby Restart' update

By PA
Exeter Chiefs' Jack Nowell in training.

Premiership Rugby clubs can return to contact training on Monday in a ‘significant milestone’ towards the league’s planned resumption on August 15. England’s top-flight domestic competition has been halted since March due to the coronavirus shutdown, but this latest step forward will raise hopes that the league is on track for its planned return.

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Stage two of the clubs’ return will allow close contact training for small groups, to include scrummaging work.

“This is a significant milestone in our journey to restarting Gallagher Premiership Rugby, as we stay on track to resume the league on Saturday, August 15, if it remains safe to do so,” said Premiership Rugby chief executive Darren Childs.

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Brumbies coach Dan McKellar – Super Rugby AU Round One

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Brumbies coach Dan McKellar – Super Rugby AU Round One

“This stage brings with it a comprehensive COVID-19 testing programme for players and staff and a contact tracing protocol.

“As part of our commitment to player welfare, all players will be asked whether they would like to opt-in to Stage 2 training, after completing an education module.

“Rugby has unique challenges due to levels of proximity and impact, which is why the exhaustive process that is being followed is so thorough and has involved high-level collaboration between Premiership Rugby, RFU and RPA.”

Bristol’s 28-15 win over Harlequins on March 8 remains the last match played in the delayed Premiership campaign.

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The top-flight clubs have suffered deep financial losses during the shutdown, and a potential resumption in August would doubtless ease those concerns.

England’s decision-making Professional Game Board (PGB) has ratified the move to allow clubs to ramp up their training, in preparation for the planned Premiership resumption.

All Premiership club players and staff must undertake education modules on the step up in training, continue to undergo daily coronavirus testing and maintain heightened hygiene standards.

Clubs must also stick to contact tracing protocols supported by GPS data and videoing of training sessions.

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“I can confirm that the Professional Game Board which incorporates representatives of the Rugby Football Union (RFU) Premiership Rugby, Rugby Players Association (RPA) and Championship Clubs has given provisional authorisation for Premiership Rugby clubs to move to Stage 2: Elite Sport Return to Training Guidance, from Monday, July 6,” said PGB chairman Chris Booy.

 

“The Premiership clubs successfully completed Stage 1 of the process so now we can move to Stage 2 ahead of the targeted resumption of Gallagher Premiership Rugby on the weekend of August 14 to 16.

“I’m delighted to confirm that Rugby Restart is on track.

“The teams at Premiership Rugby, RFU and RPA and at our clubs have undertaken a huge amount of work to get us to Stage 2 and I commend them for their dedication and tireless commitment to resuming the League campaign when it is safe to do so.”

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Flankly 1 hour ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

4 Go to comments
N
Nickers 1 hour ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Very poor understanding of what's going on and 0 ability to read. When I say playing behind the gain line you take this to mean all off-loads and site times we are playing in front of the gain line???


Every time we play a lot of rugby behind the gain line (for clarity, meaning trying to build an attack and use width without front foot ball 5m+ behind the most recent breakdown) we go backwards and turn the ball over in some way. Every time a player is tackled behind the most recent breakdown you need more and more people to clear out because your forwards have to go back around the corner, whereas opposition players can keep moving forward. Eventually you run out of either players to clear out or players to pass to and the result in a big net loss of territory and often a turnover. You may have witnessed that 20+ times in the game against England. This is a particularly dumb idea inside your own 40m which is where, for some reason, we are most likely to employ it.


The very best ABs teams never built an identity around attacking from poor positions. The DC era team was known for being the team that kicked the most. To engineer field position and apply pressure, and create broken play to counter attack. This current team is not differentiating between when a defence has lost it's structure and there are opportunities, and when they are completely set and there is nothing on. The reason they are going for 30 minute + periods in every game without scoring a single point, even against Japan and a poor Australian team, is because they are playing most of their rugby on the back foot in the wrong half.

43 Go to comments
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