£100,000 flood repair fund set up for devastated Welsh grassroots clubs
The Welsh Rugby Union have agreed on an action plan to support rugby clubs around Wales affected by Storm Dennis.
After a community rugby board meeting earlier this week, the WRU’s staff have been working to assess the impact of the storm in rugby communities around the country and have devised a plan to provide extra help and extra funding to impacted clubs.
An ‘exceptional circumstances’ fund has been established with £100,000 earmarked to kick-start the provision.
Additional funds will be raised by a bucket collection at Wales’ Guinness Six Nations match in Cardiff versus France, and a range of other resources are being sourced.
Some clubs have lost rugby equipment and the WRU are also taking steps to help on this front along with providing specialist expertise to recover and maintain damaged pitches.
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“These are exceptional circumstances and we have decided to allocate dedicated funds and resources to help out rugby clubs in need in communities throughout the country,” said WRU CEO Martyn Phillips.
“There is money put aside for emergencies such as these and we will take great care to ensure that we target both money and resources in the right areas so that we are helping those who need it most.”
The WRU have also said they will be providing further practical help with staff members pledging to spend a full working day at affected clubs to help out in any way they can.
Referee Nigel Owens has already been busy giving assistance, offering his help to affected clubs by sending them his signed shirts to auction off.
He shared a post on Twitter in the wake of the storm which received a huge response. “To all the rugby clubs out there.
"If you think it will help and you want a signed ref jersey of mine that may be helpful to auction or raffle off to help raise some funds after Storm Dennis then please let me know. Will DM you to get sorted. Thinking of you all who have suffered from it.”
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Skelton may be brought back for the Wallabies so that would be the only reason that may hinder Wilson. Easily the form, most skilful and game IQ of any Oz 8. Valentini’s best and favourite position is 6, but lineouts may be an issue with Skelton, Valentini and Wilson. Will be interesting what Schmidt goes for but for me Wilson should be picked on form. Schmidt rewards work rate, skill and consistency. All that glitters every so often won’t be in contention. Greely is one of those players that has a knack of making the right decision. A coach is going to love him because he knows week in week out he’s going to get the job done. The second try Greely wasn’t the guy who made the initial break it was Flook, Greely was at the bottom of the ruck when Flook was off along the sideline. Greely got up and made the effort to catch up with play but also read the play nicely and hit the pass from Campbell at pace and then held the pass beautifully to Ryan.
Go to commentsSharks deserved to be far further back by the last quarter. Their tackling was awful, their set pieces were disappointing, their defensive organization was poor (especially on the Kok side of the D line), they kept making unnecessary errors, and they never looked like cracking the Clermont defense during those first 60m. Masuku kept them in touch, with some help from the Clermont generosity on penalty opportunities. Agree with the writer of this article. It was belligerence, and ability to raise their pressure game just enough, that turned the last quarter into a Bok-style shutout. Clermont have a reputation of not playing the full 80m, and there was a bit of that for sure. But, quite often when the intensity of a team drops off in the last quarter credit is due to the opponent for tiring them out. At 60m, with the Kok try, you thought that just maybe the game was on. At 70m, with the Mapimpi contribution, one felt that Clermont were fading, while facing a team that would maintain the pressure game through the final whistle. Good win in the end, but the Sharks are still playing way below their potential. And with their resources, and a coach that has had enough time to figure things out, they are running out of excuses.
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