Director of Rugby Chris Hyndman has been working hard behind the scenes along with Chairman Mark Armstrong and Head Coach Peter Evans to ensure a safe return to rugby for seniors, juniors and minis. It has been paramount that we have everyones safety in mind. Whilst its been difficult and other clubs 'may' have returned earlier we have followed RFU guidelines, County guidelines as well as Government guidelines.

We as a club and committee are eager to get back to 'normal' however we have to make sure we can facilitate and accommodate everyone whilst following the above guidelines. This has took sometime... not forgetting these guys have their own jobs to do... To get to where we are now has been a great task. Thank you Chris, Mark and Peter.

Chris has put together a timetable and some rules which must be adhered too.

Below is a list of the slots for each team, as you can see where possible we have tried to keep it to just 2 teams at the club at any one time, to help with our ability to social distance and keep everyone as safe as possible.

The times and days of training are not exactly correct for all but given the current situation a certain amount of flexibility will have to be adopted for the timebeing.

The current situation allows us to have 5 kids to any one coach, the training should be fitness based with personal skills using their own ball for now. This means we require each group of 5 to have a separate coach, if you need parents to get involved and help that's worth thinking about now as they will need a DBS through the RFU of which we can sort through the club. We had hoped by the time we had come back to training that the groups sizes would be larger with the ability to share a ball and be closer together, however it isn't currently and we will update coaches and managers when that step is reached.

Their are obviously a list of rules that must be followed at training to help us to adhere to government guidelines and safeguard the club and out players.

• There will be a copy of a risk assessment to read and a safeguarding form to fill in online before players return to training.
• Access to the club will be through the small gate at the side, entrants will have right of way, please use the one way system that is in place.
• Please turn up within 5 mins of your session allowing other groups to leave before entry.
• Please depart promptly after sessions
• There is a wash station set up in the doorway of the garage, please ask all players to wash their hands on entry before the session.
• If using balls, ideally ask players to bring their own with them, if they don't have one please make sure that any given out are washed prior to use.
• Once you have been given your training area please make sure that all participants stay within it till your session is over. (Toliet facilities are open for use)
• All players should have their own water bottles.
• Please can we ask that all parents from under 12s up over drop off their kids and pick children up at the end of the session. You are very welcome to watch from your cars in the car park, but for the time being it just makes it easier for us to manage.
• From under 7s to under 11s parents will be allowed onsite, this is as the kids are younger and they can help enforce the social distancing requirements alongside the coaches.

The groups listed below are age groups for the coming season, so if you where under7s this year below you will be under 8s etc.

Training will commence for the colts on the Tuesday the 21st of July on a Tuesday and Thursday basis as normal.
Training will start for the rest of the junior section week commencing the 27th of July

Timings
Under 7s 9.30 - 10.30 Sunday mornings
Under 8s 9.30 - 10.30 Sunday mornings
Under 9s 10.50 -11.50 Sunday mornings
Under 10s 10.50 - 11.50 Sunday mornings
Under 11s 5.30 - 6.30 Tuesday evening
Under 12s 5.30 - 6.30 Tuesday evening
Under 13s 5.30 - 6.30 Thursday evening
Under 14s 5.30 - 6.30 Thursday evening
Under 15s 6.00 - 7.30 Wednesday evening
Under 16s 6.00 - 7.30 Wednesday evening
Colts 6.50 - 8.00 Tuesday & Thursday evening
Girls 5.30 - 6.30 Tuesday evening

Any updates on what we are allowed to do in training will be posted in the coaches and managers group as soon as we get them.
Hopefully fingers crossed as the social distancing measures change we will be able to get more teams back together on the same nights and get somewhere back to a normal situation. For the time being please work hard at enforcing the current guidelines, the better we are at it hopefully the quicker we see progress.

Stay Safe

#OSIOS