Staffordshire Rugby Union Newsletter No. 13 December 2012 Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Inside this issue: CB News items 2 & 3 International Ticket 4 & 5 Allocation letter Have your say RFU 6 Governance QBE internationals 7 2013 CPD Cheslyn Hay 7 RWC 2015 8 Lions Coaches 9 Lichfield ladies 9 SRU U20 & U18 News 10 League & Merit tables 11-13 Coach & Ref CPD’s 14 Letter to SRU Clubs 15 News from Stafford 16 Uttoxeter and Burton Sportivate 17 Humour 18-19 Presidents awards 20 Book of the Month 21 Dates for Diary 22 Links: SRU Rugby1st Web page RFU Touchline maga- zine Rugby Club magazine Rugby World magazine Staffs RDT on Facebook 1 CB Updates - December: Staffordshire Rugby Union Newsletter No. 13 December 2012 Rugby1st: RugbyFirst Replacement Systems Community Amateur Sports Club (CASC update): Player Registration: A number of you may have attended HMRC have still not published its revised guidance on one of the group sessions this month showing the new the proposed changes following legal advice however Player Registration system to gather your thoughts be- they have started to move pending applications forward fore the final release. Eight sessions have been held and by writing to clubs and asking for further information over 90 people have attended and had the opportunity to regarding their application. A number of clubs are now give us their feedback. The response to the new system receiving letters from HMRC with the following request- has been very positive indeed and number of ideas raised "Please provide me with more information about how the that will be included in the final version. This is due to be social income of the club arises. Does it arise solely from released early in the New Year but will initially work the sale of food and drink to members and their guests alongside the current Player Registration system so your or through other activities such as hiring out of club Registrars will have time to become accustomed with it facilities? If your club runs a bar, cafe or restaurant please confirm the opening times and whether or not it Flood Damage: is open at times when there is no sporting activity, such as matches and training, being undertaken. Please con- The RFU is ready to help clubs who may have suffered firm who is entitled to use the bar, cafe or restaurant". damage to flooded clubhouses or pitches during Novem- ber's heavy rain. Clubs that may have premises damaged In essence HMRC are beginning to apply the new guid- by the floods, as well as contacting their insurers, should ance without actually publishing it which makes providing contact their local Area Facility Manager outlining the any advice difficult – however please let Dave Stubley nature of the damage, whether the damage is covered by [email protected] 07736 722387 know if your club the clubs own insurance and any cash flow or operating is in this situation so that we can build up a picture of issues they may have moving forward as a result of the the number of issues and also so that we can provide damage. The RFU will then work with the club to support some advice in terms of how to provide the required its return to operational and playing activities. information. MORE INFORMATION: Contact your Area Facility Man- Clubs that are already registered as CASCs should not ager be concerned at this stage but those that are consider- ing applying for registration may wish to bear this in mind if they receive holding letters from HMRC. RFU Regulation 15 (Age Group Rugby) At the start of next year the Age Grade Review Group MORE INFORMATION: [email protected] or will be meeting to review and discuss feedback on the 07736722387 revised Regulation 15 that came into force in August 2012. All constituent bodies are invited to feedback any comments on Regulation 15 to Alys Lewis ([email protected]) by no later than 1st February 2013 so that all feedback can be discussed by the group. Direct Debit Solution for Clubs: The RFU recommends within its guidance on business planning that subscriptions and fees are collected by Di- rect Debit. This is a much more efficient method for revenue collection within the club environment. We have recently been doing some work to support clubs in doing this. Traditionally the financial size of a club has made it unlikely that their bank will allow it. We have been work- ing with First Capital Cashflow to provide a potential so- lution via their Club Subs Collections. MORE INFORMATION: [email protected] 2 CB Updates - December: Staffordshire Rugby Union Newsletter No. 13 December Grant Finder: Fit for 15 - Off Field - 120 grants of between £1000 and £10,000 targeting projects such as goalposts, TRACKING down organisations who offer funding to grounds maintenance equipment and social facilities sports clubs is a complex and a time-consuming affair, Fit for 15 – On Field – 45 grants of between £25,000 largely because, even in these challenging economic times, and £100,000 targeting on field projects such as there is still a huge number of funding sources available. pitches, changing rooms and floodlights There is a Grantfinder System installed on rfu.com de- RFU Legacy Centres – 40 grants of between £50,000 signed to help clubs identify grant opportunities in their and £250,000 targeting the delivery of high quality area. multiple floodlit pitch sites The system provides access to a database of over 100,000 grant possibilities which are available from a myriad of funding groups, from small parish council offerings MORE INFORMATION: [email protected] through to major European grant funds and includes fund- ing opportunities for both capital and revenue projects. Rugby in Colleges: The search engine is run in partnership with the Idox Group whose team of researchers maintains the database The face of sport in education is changing at a pace and ensures that any potential new funding partners are bringing some challenges but significant opportunities promptly identified and uploaded. especially leading into 2015. Our work in schools and universities continues to strengthen and we now know The RFU is keen to help and advise clubs to access funding much more about what colleges sector has to offer. for their many projects, but via this database, we are hop- Some key facts: ing to give clubs the chance to investigate for themselves what the marketplace might have to offer to support schemes in their specific area. There are 345 colleges across the country The Facilities team and RDO’s will still be available to of- There are twice the number of 16-18 year olds study- fer help and guidance, but the database will provide an ing in college than in state secondary schools easily accessible insight into what might be available in a Colleges offer a wide range of courses from GCSE and specific area of the country or for a particular project. A-level to Degree To access the site log on to www.rfu.com/grantfinder A-level results in colleges were 10% higher than state MORE INFORMATION: Alex Thompson alexthomp- schools in 2011/12 [email protected] or Dave Stubley [email protected] Colleges are now allowed to register 14 year olds on full time courses RFU Lead Up and Legacy Plan - Facilities The RFU’s Lead Up & Legacy Plans recently outlined a Early in the New Year, England Colleges RFU along with £10m investment into Better Facilities in more than 500 ERFSU and SRFU will provide some strategic focus clubs nationwide. Central to this commitment is the role of areas to help geographical CBs consider their work the CB’s and their respective Facility Coordinators who with the education sectors when they start their PFR are all currently working with the RFU Area Facility Man- process. They are also putting together a support net- agers to identify club, school and university facility needs work of college representatives around the country. heading into England 2015 and beyond. Once completed, at Your Area Manager and RDOs are the RFU point of the end of the month, the CB Facility Plans will act as the contact for local colleges work and we would urge you start point for the identification of projects for the to build a plan for engaging with the sector in your RFU’s Lead Up & legacy Fund which will be delivered in two planning. For more information about rugby in colleges phases; please contact our Colleges Development Manager. Phase 1 – Season 2012/3 & 2013/4 Phase 2 – Season 2014/5 & 2015/6 MORE INFORMATION: [email protected] Phase one will be delivered through three funding themes which will commence in the New Year through the CBs and RFU Area Facility Managers; 3 International Ticket Allocation Staffordshire Rugby Union Newsletter No. 13 December 2012 International Ticket Allocation December 2012 This information is sent as a reminder to advise you that you need to ensure that the information that is on your RugbyFirst pages is up to date and correct. As I have said in previous correspondence, missing and incorrect data on your RugbyFirst pages could result in your club not maximising its allocation of international match tickets. The data to produce the points for next season (2013/14) will be extracted from RugbyFirst on 21 January. The information relating to your club will be passed to the Rugby Development Officers for verification during January and February 2013. The two key features of the ticket allocation are firstly the base number of tickets and secondly the tickets related to the number of points awarded to a club.