Rugby Club ISSUE 87 | Page 23

Hereford Community “I would definitely consider our Club to be a huge part of our community and we have strong links with all the local schools and leisure centres, utilising some of their facilities when Mother Nature throws her hat in the ring with bad weather or floods, and then returning the favour where we can.” Challenges “Our biggest ongoing challenge at the moment is that we are located on the banks of the beautiful River Wye, which unfortunately floods quite regularly throughout the year. Each season we lose several weekends to flooded or unplayable pitches. I also think the biggest challenge facing not only our Club but clubs like ours up and down the country is the need to keep the lines of revenue open and varied. What we don’t want to do is keep asking the same parents, supporters and patrons of the Club for money for this and money for that, we would rather invite them to join with us in the activities that we host throughout the season. Thus again, cementing and extending our rugby family. Clearly the RFU need to ensure local clubs respond appropriately on changes to rules, regulations and importantly legislation, whilst we can see sense in some of them the assumption on the part of the RFU that local clubs have the resilience to cope with these increasing pressures is not grounded in reality, society not just rugby clubs rely heavily on volunteers and so the pool is rapidly being eroded. We are seriously concerned that the potential financial implications are a threat to community level rugby.” Ambitions “Our immediate plans are to focus on our whole club on field successes and to conclude our preparations for our 150th anniversary in 2020-21. Our mid-term activity is to support our longer-term strategic aim of relocating our club to a purpose-built facility, an opportunity presented through local development plans. Whilst this has been ongoing for a number of years with its obstacles along the way we are confident that we will see further progress during the next year.” www.rugbyclubmag.com 23