Minutes of Committee Meeting - 5 September 2023

NORTH WEST INTERMEDIATE RUGBY UNION LEAGUESNORTH WEST INTERMEDIATE RUGBY UNION LEAGUES

SPONSORED BY HALBRO

Minutes of the Committee Meeting via Zoom 7pm 5th Sept 2023

Committee Present:

Fred Swarbrick, John Powell, Paul Riordan, Peter Harrison, Peter Rhodes, Craig Hine, Tommy Hughes, Ian Cousens, Craig Ross, Andy Thompson, Mark Ashley and Sarah Shackleton

Apologies : Greg King

This meeting was called in relation to 2 events that happened on the first day of the season, relating to Fylde 2nds and Wigan 2nds and the issue of postponements v concedes.

The RFU want the league’s concede rules scrapped, but as it was pointed out the AGM, there was a proposal to increase the number of concedes to 7, but this was not carried, so the teams within the leagues must like what we are trying to do to get teams to play.

Originally Fylde 2nds requested a postponement and FS agreed to this. It was pointed out that Fylde 2nds couldn’t postpone as Fylde have 3rds and 4ths. FS went back to Fylde explaining the rules and said if Fylde 2nds conceded then the 3rds and 4ths would have to concede as well but could play the games as friendlies. This prompted a phone call to JP from Mark Nelson which was rude and offensive.

The second game involving Wigan 2nds, Wigan 2nds agreed with Bury 2nds to a postponement and that was agreed also with PH. JP informed PH that Bury had a 3rds so couldn’t postpone. PH went back to both clubs and informed them that the game would be a concede against Wigan because Bury 2nds weren’t the lowest team. This then led to Dave Clarke making a complaint.

A discussion took place regarding concedes postponements and team levels. After a lengthy debate it was agreed that only the lowest team playing on the day could request a postponement. So, a 2nd team with a 3rds can only request a postponement if the 3rds do not have a game. This decision was made to try and stop any lower team loading after a postponement. This rule refers to both teams on the day. PH was asked to go back to Bury to see if they still would agree to a postponement as Bury 3rds did not have a game on the first day of the season, so under these rules the game could have been postponed.

There was also a game Hoylake v Sefton that was shown as a concede because of the old rule.

The Committee unanimously offered it’s support to JP over the Mark Nelson incident and FS agreed to contact Fylde for comments and preferably an apology.

Meeting ended 8:05pm