International Appointments
Nikki O’Donnell
Congratulations to society members - Nikki O’Donnell and Karl Dickson - on their World Rugby Autumn International appointments recently announced. Nikki will be in the middle for the rescheduled Women’s Six Nations match, France v Ireland, as well as running touch for Ireland v Italy the previous weekend. Additionally, Nikki will be running the line in the England v France Autumn International.
Karl Dickson
Karl will be refereeing his 1st Tier 1 International match on 24/10, with a trip to Paris to referee France v Wales. Subsequently he will be running touch in the rescheduled Men’s Six Nations France v Ireland match , before running touch in the Autumn Nations Cup games Italy v Scotland and Italy v Fiji during November.
These are fantastic appointments and another stepping stone towards (hopefully!) the Women’s World Cup in New Zealand in 12 month’s time, and the Men’s World Cup in France in 2023.
National Panel Appointments
Tom Bird
It is with great pleasure that we announce that Tom Bird continues his rapid rise through the levels, having been promoted from the South East Group to the RFU National Panel at the recent selection session.
Many congratulations to Tom and we look forward to watching is ongoing progression closely.
Return to Rugby
Now the bad news!
You will have seen the recent announcement from RFU regarding the delay in a return to competitive community rugby until at least January 2021. There is still some possibility of some action pre-Christmas as noted - “…The RFU continues to be in active dialogue with government about moving to Stage E on the Roadmap should we reach this point at any time before Christmas, competitive friendly matches could commence…” – however this remains unlikely. The society will continue to fulfill small number of school appointments at this time.
LSRFUR Lockdown Learning
Our series of online webinars contrinie, with the latest session focusing on Game Review - taking place in September. Many thanks again to our guest presenter - James Coborough - who delivered an insightful and educational session alongside Joe James and chairman Nick Cousins.
The recording of the session - and all of the Lockdown Learning sessions - can be viewed here.