If grassroots sport competitions go ahead this winter, they are all going to take a different form than they usually do but none quite as much as New England Rugby Union.
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NERU pulls a large chunk of its player base from the University of New England (UNE) and with no guarantees the university will have full-time on-campus teaching by the time sport resumes, those numbers could be drained significantly.
"Year to year, we have to run with the university timetable. It's how we run our competition and dictates the timing of the grand final. This is no different in that respect," New England Rugby president David Clifton said.
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NSW Rugby Union is targeting a July return to the field and Clifton said NERU could have a competition up and running by then but it would be "a somewhat different format than the traditional one".
The major factor is player numbers - something that wouldn't be known until closer to the proposed return date.
The women's competition is "very much in the air" at the moment and will likely have less teams in 2020 compared to 2019.
Clifton said the NERU executive was looking at a range of different ideas to combat a lack of on-campus students.
"We may well have to look at a combination of college teams or indeed the students playing with the town clubs to enable enough players to allow us to have a meaningful competition," Clifton said.
Clifton said the health and safety of those involved in the sport came above anything else but also said NERU would be doing everything to get players on the paddock in 2020.
"We're not going to do anything to our players and spectators at risk. That's a really important facet for us," he said.
Clifton also welcomed suggestions on how best to move forward and said the executive would be meeting regularly to stay on top of the changing climate.
