Returning to Rugby in 2021.

The game of rugby union has gone out of the window for every nonelite club in the UK this year. The sport of rugby union is one of victory through collisions. Escaping hopefully the last lockdown, the RFU have restarted their pathways towards the resumption of normality within the game, called Return to Rugby (RtR). The last three weeks Saracens ARFC have competed in ten non-contact Ready4Rugby (R4R) matches, both interclub and local derbies.

Both as a player and photographer, witnessing the life brought back to grassroots rugby pitches has been a massive pleasure. The life returning to the club has not only been shown through the ability to field two twenty player squads on one day but also having regularly over 60 players turning up on a weekday evening for two hours.

Understandably, this variation of rugby was not the variation of rugby we all envisaged, at the start of the new year in 2020. There is no better feeling as a player than dominating an opponent through physical and technical skill in open play as well as carefully designed scenarios such as a scrum or lineout. Unfortunately, that contact is restricted to “the agility of the player breaking the line, facing 10 opponents with both hands out looking to touch them on the waist”.

After playing for the third week in a row, no matter what feeling there is with rule changes and their variations, it is fantastic playing again with friends and the greater rugby community. Skills learnt through training both this year and previous can finally be put into serious matches, while the desire to beat strangers instead of teammates is still there.