New England Rugby Union's executive will have to give serious thought to delaying the launch of the season if players have not been able to practice skills such as scrummaging, rucking and mauling, according to Tamworth's veteran coach Peter Burke.
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Burke applauded the executive's "courage" in setting a season launch date of July 18, but said that player safety was the No 1 priority.
At present, social distancing laws bar physical contact between players, although that could soon change.
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Burke said: "It only makes sense ... If we can't tackle, scrummage, lineout, ruck [and] maul on the Friday, then you can't expect [them] to do that on the Saturday and feel safe about it. I think the executive of the zone will make good decisions around those basic principles of safety.
"I think that if we can't progress our training to that point, we have to reassess where we're at."
Burke - one of the most respected rugby figures in the region - believes that a season could still be conducted even if the start date was delayed by up to three weeks.
The NERU has formulated a 10-round home-and-away season, with a one-weekend final series (first plays fourth and third plays fourth) and an October 3 grand final.
Burke said: "We've gotta be able to get our wind, we've gotta be able to get core strengths and other strengths ready. Hopefully we can get some contact in before we actually say, 'Let's go out there and play.'"
You shouldn't be a coach, or an executive in a rugby club, unless [player safety is] your highest priority.
- Peter Burke
He added: "You shouldn't be a coach, or an executive in a rugby club, unless [player safety is] your highest priority."
On Friday night, the NERU executive made the decision to attempt staging a season and then contacted its six clubs - who all supported the move.
On Sunday morning, Central North Rugby Union's nine clubs unanimously voted to abandon the season - deciding that there was most likely insufficient time to stage competitions.
Burke said it was unfair to compare the two decisions.
"The first thing is, I think they are two very different zones, in both numbers of teams and distance that needs to be travelled, where people are living, the conditions," he said. "It's very hard to compare the two zones, and they're compared far too regularly.
"I've spent the majority of my life in the Central North competition. And now I've been in New England the last couple of years. It's vastly different [to Central North].
"But I also have faith in the executive of Central North and the decisions that they've made."
Burke said the New England season progressing would "add a lot of value to the way we approach our daily life".
"When sport turns to some form of normality, then as a society we'll feel a little bit more normal," he said, adding that New England rugby was saying: "If we get the green light to move forward, then we're gonna be ready to do so.'"
Burke said another potential hurdle looming over the season centred on St Albert's College and Robb College.
"The difficulty I suppose we have is whether or not the university clubs are able to get continuity of people through the periods that we're talking about," he said.
But he said that when "times were tough, I think you've just gotta be able to think outside the square".
"And I was certainly a great supporter of an idea of a summer series that was floating around.
"You play night football, perhaps on a Friday night, into the warmer months, so long as the regulations and the ability to train was around."
Burke would welcome any player who wanted to join Tamworth for the coming season.
However, he said the Magpies' preseason player numbers were the best he'd seen at a club he had served at.
"And since then we've had players ring us wanting to come and play, new players that have come to town that are talking with us ... it's something that has excited me, and, in the same breath, has disappointed me because of not having been able to get on the field, at this stage."
