St. Mary’s Kick Off Their Return To Rugby

Thursday night training was back at St. Mary’s College RFC last night, albeit with a very different look and feel as the club commenced the Reduced Activities Stage of the their #ReturnToRugby plan.

St. Mary’s College recently submitted a comprehensive #ReturnToRugby plan in line with IRFU guidelines.

The plan, which has kindly been made available as a case study to be shared with other clubs, provides for players training in pods, social distance marking throughout the club and on pitch as well as detailed stages for phasing back in other teams across the club with COvid-19 Compliance officers overseeing each session.

Speaking to IrishRugby.ie about the plan Patrick Crawford, Hon Sec. for St. Mary’s said,

“There are no shortcuts, every step has to be taken. Everybody wants to play but if you haven’t done your risk assessment, put in place your safety plan and installed as much protection as you can – cleansers, distance marking and protocols, then you are putting the club and members at risk.”

Every coach must submit training plans to the Compliance Officers and get sign off. Training times will be staggered, and the first team will train in pods of four.

“We want to ensure there is easy contact tracing in place in the event of anyone showing symptoms of Covid-19″

The IRFU yesterday updated the guidelines for clubs with dates for the resumption of contact training as well as advice on player/coach ratios.