This document provides guidance and solutions for common challenges faced by university rugby clubs, as well as an overview of support available from the Rugby Football Union (RFU). Some key challenges addressed include player retention, recruitment, coaching, referees, volunteers and governance, facilities, and building links with local clubs. For each challenge, potential solutions are presented along with details of applicable RFU support such as funding, coaching resources, mentorship and guidance, promotional materials, and connecting clubs to relevant networks and opportunities. The overall goal of the RFU support is to help university rugby clubs grow and sustain participation in the sport at all levels.

1. University Rugby

2. This booklet is a guide to help you develop your University Rugby Club and
make the most of RFU Support on offer.
There will be support available from your University Students Union and
Sports Development Team.
There is an RFU University Rugby Development officer (URDO) who can help
you - get in contact with them to see how they can help!
The focus of our RFU support is to help you grow and sustain your University
Rugby Club helping more men & women play rugby in different forms.
This booklet looks to give guidance when facing some of the challenges you
may have when taking over the rugby club and help identify who can help
you with support and solutions. Well done for stepping up to try to make a
positive difference to your Club!
UNI SUPPORT GUIDE - PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS
INFO

3. Retention &
development
of players
“Our university has lots of players wantingto play but
we only have 1 or 2 BUCS team and lots of players
can’t get games”.
“We don’t really have any links with local clubs
and some players would like to get games at the
weekend”.
“We have new players that need quality coaching to
help build their confidence but we don’t have a coach”.
“We could do with some specialist coaching e.g.
front row”.
“So many players signed up and now we don’t have
enough coaches”.
“Our opposition has pulled out” or “we need more
fixtures between the Merit League Festivals and
don’t know how to get them”.
South East University and London University Merit
Leagues offer regular opportunities to play against
similar standard opposition. Teams play with the
numbers and rules that they want without the
pressure of regulations and can play as much or as
little as they like, without anycost of entry. Teams
referee themselves.
Game Finder helps university players to link
with local clubs and find weekend games.
A team of Community Rugby Coaches is available
to support your developing players.
We prefer to work alongside existing coaches
but if that’s not an option we can deliver some
sessions and also help to get your players on
courses.
We can put you in touch with local clubs and
signpost coach education courses e.g. Scrum
Factory.
Join the London University Fixture Exchange
where you can connect with all local universities
that are also looking for fixtures. London
University Fixture Exchange.
Funding for Level 2
Referee places. Kit,
CRC support.
Game Finder
Stash, funding for
travel.
Coaching,
mentoring and
funding for courses.
Facebook page.
KEY AREA UNIVERSITY CHALLENGE
RETENTIONAND
DEVELOPMENT
SOLUTIONS TO HELP RFU SUPPORT OFFERED
“WE CAN PUT YOU IN TOUCH WITH LOCAL CLUBS
AND SIGNPOST COACH EDUCATION COURSES”

4. “We don’t have a coach for Wednesday afternoons” or
“We don’t have a coach for our team this season”.
“Our university isn’t releasing students early
enough to get to games” or “ we can’t play away
games because we all have lectures on Wednesday
afternoons”.
“Our university won’t fund travel to non BUCS events
so we can’t attend Merit league festivals or away
friendly fixtures”.
“We have signed up lots of new players but the first
games aren’t until 4 weeks’ time and we are worried
we may lose them”.
“We have some players that want to just play touch
rugby”.
“Lots of our players are leaving at the end of the
year and we want to help them find a club”.
“We want to go on tour at the end of the season to
build a good team spirit”.
We can help your university to advertise for a new
coach using our communication channels. Simply
work with your Student Union and create an advert.
We can also put you in touch with your local club
who might help.
If you let us know we can raise the issue with
your SU, however this is something that you will
need to address as an entire team.
We have a small amount of funding to support any
new teams that you have created to get to these
types of events. We can also help you with financial
planning and generating income.
Come along to one of our Freshers’ festivals
where they will receive coaching, and informal
games where you can watch your new players for
the first time. We can also run girls development
sessions.
We can either signpost your players to their local
O2 Touch centre, or we could look at setting up an
O2 Touch centre at your university.
We will ask you for all of the details of the
leaving students so we can help them find clubs
when the leave.
We can put you in touch with England Rugby
Travel who may be able to help you find a good
deal.
Advertising and
help with selection
if needed.
Support your club
to raise the issue.
Funding and
guidance.
Coaching,
mentoring.
£1,000 per year
for running an O2
Touch centre.
Leavers forms.
ERT details.
KEY AREA UNIVERSITY CHALLENGE
RETENTIONAND
DEVELOPMENT
SOLUTIONS TO HELP RFU SUPPORT OFFERED

5. “We want to stand out at Freshers’ Fayre and look
professional so we get more sign ups.”
“We struggle to recruit and retain players from
Freshers’ fayre through until the first games.”
“We know we will get lots of signups but we don’t
have a Merit team captain responsible for leading
the new team and increasing participation.”
We can provide you with posters and table-
top banners and give you advice before your
fayre. We will help you to identify what you can
offer new players of all types e.g BUCS rugby,
social rugby, touch rugby, women’s rugby. Also
consider recruiting referees and coaches to help
your club.
We can use our CRCs to help coach new players.
We also run Freshers Festivals with development
sessions, along with opportunities to play other
players of similar standards. We can give you
guidance on running your first sessions and
selecting players.
Each university needs to recruit a captain who
will lead the merit team. They are critical in
helping new players feel welcome and bringing
them together to play games.
Promotion
resources.
Guidance.
CRC, Freshers
festivals,
development
sessions. Selection
process support.
Guidance from
URDO and CRC.
Stash for merit
captains-tbc.
KEY AREA UNIVERSITY CHALLENGE
RECRUITMENT SOLUTIONS TO HELP RFU SUPPORT OFFERED
Recruitment
“WE WILL HELP YOU TO IDENTIFY WHAT
YOU CAN OFFER NEW PLAYERS”

6. “We don’t have enough coaches to coach all of our
players and teams”.
“We have an experienced coach leading our
university how can we ensure they continue to get
better?”.
We want teams to have a suitably experienced
and qualified coach and will support any coaches’
development by helping them to find and fund a
course and then help them improve when they are
back in the university coaching. Key courses are
Rugby Ready, Scrum Factory and Level 2 coaching
the XVa- side game. We can also help in the short
term with CRC support.
Your local Constituent Body runs coach
education workshops with high profile coaches
often leading sessions. The RFU run Continual
Personal Development courses focusingon
specific areas of the game. Consider writing CPD
attendance into your coach’s contract and that
they must be licensed as a coach.
Funding,
CRC mentoring.
Delivery of coach
education courses.
KEY AREA UNIVERSITY CHALLENGE
COACHES SOLUTIONS TO HELP RFU SUPPORT OFFERED
Coaches

7. “Our referee has pulled out and we don’t have one, can
you help?”.
“We want to play in the merit league but we don’t
have a referee to bring with us”.
Local Referee Societies are the main source of
referees. If your referee has pulled out we are
unlikely to find one for you. However, anyone can
referee a game as long as they feel confident and
happy to referee. Both universities need to agree
the solution if the home team is happy to appoint
that person. It is preferable to have a fully qualified
official and we encourage all referees to attend
a Refereeing the XVa-side game Level 2 course.
We are committed to helping to recruit, train and
develop referees and will provide funding and
guidance to anyone wanting to become a referee.
Due to the informal nature of the merit league
just bring someone happy and confident to
referee. If you are struggling don’t worry, other
teams may bring someone or we will have CRC
support on hand to referee. Over the course of
the season we will expect you to find a suitable
person toreferee. We will let you know about the
dates of the courses for your referees to attend
and we will fund the places.
Funding for courses.
CRC mentoring.
Funding for
courses, CRC
support,
Mentoring.
KEY AREA UNIVERSITY CHALLENGE
REFEREES SOLUTIONS TO HELP RFU SUPPORT OFFERED
Referees

8. “We are the newly elected presidents of our club and
want to support our university to be the best it can be
and provide direction for the club”.
“We need more volunteers to help run events”.
“We have done lots of great work this year growing
the size and quality of the club, but we are concerned
about how to sustain it when we leave and RFU
funding is phased out”.
We run leadership training for new and existing
Presidents and Vice Presidents and, indeedanyone
with leadership potential.
We will keep in touch all year to ensure that we
help you to plan, deliver, achieve and review your
aims.
We will get all university club leaders together
to share ideas, reward your efforts, and tell you
about new ideas to help your club improve through
regional forums.
Universities need more people doing less work
and we can give you advice on how to recruit
more people to help you and provide you with
template role descriptions for you and your
volunteers to adapt.
We also have a limited amount of stash to give
away for the best volunteers to help keep them
motivated and reward their efforts.
We can help your club to build a picture of
how to continue the success through providing
guidance on budgeting, fundraising, evidencing
your successes, identifying opportunities and
influencing key decision makers.
Student Leadership
Training.
University Rugby
development Plan.
Student Forums.
Guidance and
Role descriptions.
Provide stash.
Guidance.
KEY AREA UNIVERSITY CHALLENGE
VOLUNTEERSAND
GOVERNANCE
SOLUTIONS TO HELP RFU SUPPORT OFFERED
Volunteers
and
Governance

9. “Our university training facilities are really poor”
e.g. there is not enough space for us to train or the
flood lights don’t work well enough”.
“Any time it rains our pitches become waterlogged
and unplayable and our games are postponed”.
Address this with your Student Union first as
they may offer alternative areas to train. We can
help you find alternative training facilities by
putting you in touch with your local clubs.
We can provide assistance for universities to
access facility improvement grants.
Have a backup pitch in case it rains heavily, maybe
at a local club. Build a good relationship with the
grounds man to get him on side, try giving him
some stash!
If your problem persists your groundsmen can
register with groundsmenconnected@rfu.com. to
have direct access to a network of groundsmen,
along with Twickenham’s Head Groundsman
and get the advice they need to help your pitch
improve. They will also be able to apply for grants
and take advantage of online training tools.
Club links and
guidance on
facility grants.
Guidance and
support.
KEY AREA UNIVERSITY CHALLENGE
FACILITIES SOLUTIONS TO HELP RFU SUPPORT OFFERED
Facilities

10. “We want to build links with our local club but don’t
know how”.
“We are really keen on volunteering in the community
but need some help to find opportunities.”
We can put you in touch with your local club so
that you can build a relationship to benefit your
players and their club. We also have the Game
Finder programme (see retention).
We can help find your volunteers opportunities
to volunteer in local clubs, schools and colleges
and help fund your coach education needs (see
coaching and refereeing). Also link in with your
university volunteer coordinator.
Guidance.
Find opportunities
to volunteer.
KEY AREA UNIVERSITY CHALLENGE
CLUBLINKS SOLUTIONS TO HELP RFU SUPPORT OFFERED
Club links