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RFU to slash 139 England Rugby jobs

(Photo by Warren Little/Getty Images)

The cash strapped RFU are set to slash 139 job across England Rugby in a bid to save money as the financial toll of the coronavirus pandemic hits home. RFU chairman Bill Sweeney confirmed the news via a statement, which can be viewed in full here, outlining that the union are bracing themselves for a potential £107m hit in lost revenues.

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As a result, the RFU are expecting to make 139 of their 580 staff redundant.

The final decision on the exact number of redundancies will be made in late August.

“My thoughts and those of all of us at the RFU are with everyone impacted by COVID-19, both across the country but also within our own rugby union community,” Sweeney said.

“As you will be aware the long-term financial challenges are significant for the whole economy. We like many rugby clubs rely on revenue from matches and events at Twickenham Stadium and we re-invest this revenue back into the game.

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“Our detailed scenario modelling shows there may be a short-term impact of £107m in lost revenues and we also know there will be a much longer-term effect. We are projecting a 4-5 year recovery with cumulative revenue reductions of around 20%.

“We are having to make difficult decisions on what we can continue to invest in as well as what is the right size and shape of our business for the future.

“To ensure we have a sustainable RFU we have announced to colleagues that it is proposed that the total number of roles across the organisation will reduce by 139.

“This will be a difficult process, but we will be consulting with colleagues in a fair way to completely remodel our business. This will mean we will need to work very differently in future however, the whole organisation will be focussed on our priorities.”

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The RFU outline those priorities as supporting the community game and member clubs, “maintaining our ability to compete and win in the performance arena,” and introducing more people and more diversity to rugby union.

“The consultation process with colleagues will enable them to share their views and ideas on re-shaping the business ahead of any decisions being announced at the end of August,” Sweeney continued.

“We have already made some significant cost savings. We furloughed 60% of our organisation; implemented a three month pay reduction which has been extended for some; introduced pension pauses; and refined business planning and introduced stadium and office running efficiencies to reduce costs.

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“Unfortunately, this is not enough to run a sustainable operation and safeguard our future.

“We need to maintain our organisation for the long term, this is not a short-term cost reduction exercise, the RFU will still stand, but the impact of Covid19 will continue to affect us for many years to come.

“These are difficult times for us all but despite the adversity, I have been truly heartened by the spirit of rugby – seeing everyone pull together to help their local community and those most in need.”

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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
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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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