CHINNOR RFC Thame is pleased to be able to share further details about the restart of the age grade season.

We would like to thank you for your continued patience, and we hope you have stayed safe and well during lockdown.

Everyone at the Club is looking forward to seeing our Minis & Juniors back on the pitches at Kingsey Road enjoying rugby, smiling and having fun.

Please see the below key dates for your diary:

• Wednesday, March 31 - 6.45pm onwards - U13s and above to start training
• Sunday, April 4 - Training for all age groups
• Monday, April 5 – Friday, April 9 & Monday, April 12 – Friday, April 16 - Easter holiday camps (For more details please click HERE)
• Sunday, May 31 - Last session of the season

The Rugby Football Union has updated its guidelines and issued a revised Return To Community Rugby Roadmap, which can be viewed HERE. From March 31, we will be operating at Stage D1 and to support this the RFU has provided an informative video which we highly encourage everyone to watch by clicking HERE.

Please note that we are still waiting further guidance from the RFU and therefore this could change some of this information. We will make sure to update you as soon as possible if this is the case.

What can you expect from training?
We have had a three-month break which is similar to what we would normally see between each season. However, players would normally play other sports during the rugby off-season and this has obviously not been the case during the third national lockdown. Player safety is really important to us and with this in mind, the first four weeks of training will be dedicated to ensuring all players have worked on their fitness and technique before any fixtures take place.

During May, government and RFU guidelines permitting, we are hoping to offer a minimum of two fixtures with other clubs to all U7 and above age groups. We will provide further details on fixtures during April.

When will training take place?
Training will follow the same format we were running before lockdown. For Sundays, we will run three sessions as follows:

• Early session - 9.30am-10.45am - U6 -U10s
• Mid-morning Session - 11am-12.15pm - U11s-U15s
• Afternoon – 1pm-2.15pm - U16s, Colts and the Girls Squad

Concussion
This is also a good opportunity to remind players and parents (appropriate for U10/U11s and above) of the concussion awareness information and training that is available from the RFU, which can be found HERE.

Pitch allocation and car parking
Please find attached to the bottom of this update the pitch maps we will be using. If you are attending the mid-morning session, please use the showground entrance to the north of Club.

COVID specific information

• Please do not attend training if you or your child is isolating or has any symptoms of the virus.
• Hand sanitiser will be available for all players and they should be sanitising regularly throughout a training session. Coaches will encourage this at set points.
• For track and trace purposes, each age group will be recording player attendance using Pitchero.
• Please inform us as soon as possible, if you or your child tests positive with COVID-19 and has been at training in the prior 48 hours.

Do you have any questions?
If you have any questions please ask your age group admin or our Youth Secretary, Emma Canter on youthsecretary@chinnor-rfc.com.

We look forward to seeing you soon and we will continue to update you when we can.