To say the last 10 months have been challenging not just for sport in general but the whole world is something that cannot be overstated. From a rugby point of view we have felt every single up and down as the world tries to get to grips with a near invisible enemy. Just as the things began to take a positive outlook the new variant of Covid reared its ugly head pre-Christmas just as the rugby community was gearing up for a restart having reached the penultimate Stage (E) of the RFUs Return to Rugby Roadmap. The ADM Lancashire County RU Leagues Management Committee (LMC) invoked our final contingency plans with the planned start of the ADM Micro Leagues and the ADM Combination Leagues.

The 16th January should have been the day we started on the long road back. Events have regrettably overtaken us. The LMC are faced with the current situation that only 11 Clubs out of our 37 Clubs could under the current Tier Restrictions play the amended form of the game, additionally we are conscious that whilst some Clubs (committee’s) are keen to get back quite a few of their playing members are not and we have at least 3 Clubs who would have not be able to field sides if we started on the 16th January as planned. Therefore, the LMC having looked at the developing situation and the likelihood that current Tier restrictions will remain in place at least until the end of January. We have reluctantly decided that we move our planned restart date from the 16th January to Saturday 6th March, 2021. This will help Clubs if the Tier system allows the chance to play some “warm-up” games prior to the restart date. For clarity, Week 1 of the Micro Leagues will be on Saturday 6th March with the following dates for the subsequent weeks.

Week 2 – 13th March, Week 3- 20th March, Week 4 – 27th March, Week 5 – 10th April, Week 6 - 17th April.

Fixtures in the Combination Leagues will be amended in due course, but Week 1 will now be the fixtures originally planned for 27th February which now take place on Saturday 6th March, 2021 from which point the current fixtures will then continue as published. Additionally, the LMC will arrange a wildcard week on Saturday 17th April with another complete set of fixtures.

Any further delay to the revised restart date above will ultimately mean we will have to draw a line under any organised fixtures as time and the availability of facilities (those shared with cricket clubs) would become an issue for some of our clubs. We would ask clubs to make a detailed survey of their playing members and their willingness to
participate following the transmission rates of the new Covid strain as it would seem people are putting their health and their local community ahead of sport in general, which is something we can all support hopefully for just a short time.