RFU chief very impressed on visit to Wymondham..

England Rugby’s president swaps Twickenham for Wymondham.

The President of the Rugby Football Union traded Twickenham for Wymondham

on Saturday to champion community rugby in Norfolk.

Rob Briers used the break week in the Six Nations championship to watch

Wymondham’s 1 st XV beat rivals Diss in the south Norfolk derby - and to deliver a

cautious vote of confidence in the grassroots game.

“I’m very glad to be here - Wymondham’s got wonderful facilities, great

volunteers, and how good is it to see a one-club ethos like this with equal weight

to both the men’s and women’s game.

“But the success here is quite different to many of the clubs I go to. One of the big

issues we face is participation. During Covid, levels took a big hit - players drifted

away and didn’t come back to the game so a lot of clubs are still trying to catch

up.”

As president, Briers is the figurehead of the RFU - hosting royalty at

internationals and presenting caps to England players, including Wymondham’s

own Tommy Freeman.

He’s lived, played and breathed the sport all his life - winning 50 caps for his

native Lancashire and going on to coach and volunteer at local and national

levels. And he’s honest about the challenges facing the game.

“The RFU is not in a position any longer because of financial restrictions to throw

money at things. What we’re now looking at is to drive more local decision-

making and giving guidance to clubs about how to obtain local funding, how to

get advice on things like pitch maintenance, floodlights and artificial playing

surfaces.”

At the elite level, Briers stresses the need to renegotiate the relationship with

professional clubs to produce a sustainable Premiership and Championship, with

bigger crowds and better access to top players for the national team.

“The place where they have achieved that is France,” he says.

“For many years the clubs and the governing body were at loggerheads but now

over the past five or six years they have started to work together and that is the

kind of model we’re looking at. If we can work together, then England will be a

far better force in world rugby.”

The “To Do” list is a long one and is unlikely to be complete by the time he hands

over the presidency in August. But one of his key themes for his year has been to

go back to one of rugby’s traditional values - respect.

“At the junior level I see, particularly in junior football, the players don’t get on

with each other, they’re arguing throughout the game, the parents are standing

on opposite sides of the pitch having a slanging match and it just gives the wrong

guidance for youngsters.

“If you respect one another then OK, you can be very competitive on the field but

afterwards you shake hands. If you have the respect, then everything else

follows.”