PRESS RELEASE
The Board of the Central Coast Rugby Union have made the difficult decision to abandon the 2021 CCRU competition in all senior grades. The continued lockdown, due to the spread of COVID-19 throughout our community, has left the Board with no choice but to cancel what remained of the 2021 local rugby season. This decision was made in line with advice received from NSW Country, which was to think of the wellbeing of our communities and for all competitions in Regional NSW to cease.
We have now been in lockdown for nine weeks, with at least another two weeks to come and our Clubs have not trained or prepared for rugby in this time. We have concerns that if and when community sport is allowed to return the extreme conditions which could be placed on us will not give the Zone or the clubs any benefit to continue our competition. This includes a long ‘Return to Play’ protocol, limited training numbers, vaccination requirements and restricted or possibly no crowds. We had also been advised BY NSWRU that the ‘Return to Play’ protocol would have to be at least 20 days.
The Board have determined that no Premierships will be awarded for the 2021 season. This decision was not made lightly – it is the first time this has occurred since our competition’s inception in 1975. Also, no competition awards will be handed out in 2021, such as the Club Championship, Syd Noble Medal, the Kate Thomson Medal or any Service Awards. The CCRU Presentation evening has been cancelled. However, there will be some Representative Awards acknowledged from our NSW Country Championships campaign in June.
The Board have made plans over the past nine weeks to be prepared to get rugby back up and running on the Coast and to finish our competition with a Finals Series. The length of this lockdown and the restricted access to playing fields for everyone to play and train on over the coming months, has left us with not enough time to run any of the 13 draws which had been put together as options to successfully finish our competition.
To say the Board is disappointed is an understatement and we do regret not being able to allow you, our Clubs and supporters, to see out the 2021 season. We had left it to the last possible moment to get the competition back up and running.
The Board thank all of our ten Clubs, their volunteers, players and team staff, our CCRU Sponsors and match officials, for their support in what has been a challenging period of time. We look forward to providing a more fulfilling competition in 2022.