Community Game Update - December

Content:

1. Deadline looming - book your allocation to the CB bar for the Guinness Six Nations (Sent to CBs only)
2. Election of RFU Council Members
3. GMS Team Management Module & International Ticket Allocation
4. AGPs –avoid cancelling matches in winter
5. Mitsubishi Motors Guinness Six Nations volunteer hospitality
6. VAT helpline – VAT savings
7. Legends, Olympics and gifts
8. December Team Of The Month

Please find the December 2019 edition of the Community Game Update. We hope you find the update useful, and if you have any feedback, queries or content that you would like to feature, please email Vee Montebello, RFU Senior Communications Manager (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

Our communications to you are based on the data that is held in the Game Management System (GMS). To ensure you receive the communications that you want to from the RFU, please check the information held on this system is up to date and active. In addition, if you know of a colleague who should be receiving these updates, but isn’t, please help them to check their details on GMS.

This communication is only sent to the roles highlighted in the distribution list above. If you would like to share this with other individuals, please click below.

Deadline approaching - book your allocation to the CB bar for the Guinness Six Nations

The CB bar is currently significantly under-utilised. We are therefore looking at ways to improve usage so we have put forward some long-term plans and ideas.

In the meantime, we need to fill it for the two home Six Nations fixtures in 2020, Sunday 23 February England v Ireland and Saturday 7 March England v Wales. We’ve raised the maximum number of wristbands that each CB can request to ten for each match.

We would like the bar to be a place for deserving CB volunteers to socialise as part of their Twickenham day out. It is open for three hours pre-match and drinks are served until 90 minutes after the final whistle, the room closing half an hour later.

Do take up your allocation for either of the Six Nations matches by emailing This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by Friday 17 January with details of your requirements. If your Council Member is hosting volunteers their wristband will be part of your allocation of ten.

Election of RFU Council Members

In 2017 the RFU adopted term limits for members of the RFU Council. In 2020, a number of Council Members will come to the end of their maximum terms, meaning that there will be vacancies on the Council. In other cases some Council members will come to the end of an initial term but will be eligible for re-election.

In March 2020 elections will take place in the following geographical Constituent Bodies: Durham, Middlesex, Lancashire, Gloucestershire, Cambridge University, Oxford University, Essex, Warwickshire, Somerset, Buckinghamshire, North Midlands, Sussex plus the RAF Rugby Union, the Royal Navy Rugby Union, the England Rugby Football Schools Union, the Students Rugby Union, the National Clubs Association and the Championship Clubs Committee. In many cases the incumbent Council member is eligible for re-election.

Those Constituent Bodies will send out further details to member clubs in the New Year if they have not done so already.

The RFU Council is an important body within the game, representing the interests of clubs, other rugby bodies and participants, and provides monitoring and oversight on behalf of the game. A role description for a Council member can be found here.

It is important that the Council is representative of the players and those other involved in the game, and so we would welcome a wide range of people putting themselves forward for election, especially women and those from a BAME background. Please contact your Constituent Body or Angus Bujalski, Legal and Governance Director at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for further information.

With the introduction of maximum terms of office for Council members, 2020 will see a large number of elections being run by CBs and National Representative Bodies (NRBs). With elections high in the public consciousness, external scrutiny on election processes will only increase, and so we have refreshed and built up guidance, which you can find here, for CBs and NRBs when running these elections. This has been put together with input from CB volunteers, so thank you to those who have inputted. If there are any queries, please contact Angus Bujalski, whose email address is above.

GMS Team Management Module and International ticket allocation

Over the summer all RFU voting community clubs were advised of their indicative international ticket allocation per match based on:

• An initial allocation of 6 tickets to all.
• An additional 2 tickets for clubs with 30 or more players aged U13 and below registered on GMS.
• The remainder depending on the number of 15-a-side matches played by their U14s through to adult teams, both female and male, during the 2018/19 season taken from a club’s Team Management Module on GMS.

The actual allocation for the Six Nations 2021 and other Twickenham England internationals for the following two years will be based on the total number of 15-a-side matches a club played in both 2018/19 and 2019/20.

Most queries came from clubs playing more 15-a-side games in 2018/19 than they registered on the GMS Team Management Module. They were asked to register missing matches but the opportunity to register last season’s matches will now close on 31 December 2019.

We will update clubs by February 2020 of their indicative international ticket allocation per match and also advise on the number GMS registered 15-a-side matches, on which their allocation is based. Clubs can confirm numbers of 15-a-side matches on their own GMS Team Management Module.

2019/20 Season
Clubs should keep details of their 15-a-side matches regularly updated on the GMS Team Management Module by updating the match outcomes either weekly or at least monthly. Last season saw many requesting fixtures and adding results at the season’s end, missing the indicative allocations deadline.

After the 2019/20 season deadline of 22 May 2020, clubs won’t be able to add missing fixtures which could affect actual ticket allocations. We will remind you of this cut-off date through the Community Game Updates, but if matches are listed now and outcomes regularly updated it will cut down on time spent and deadlines missed.

GMS Competitions Tool
If competition organisers, particularly for inter-club CB competitions, use the GMS Competitions Tool to help administer competitions it automatically registers each match and result on the participating clubs’ Team Management Module, so that clubs don’t have to list each fixture manually.

Help
If clubs or competition organisers need technical help in using these GMS processes, please contact the GMS Service Desk by emailing This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Your local RDO can also help with specific questions and local training needed.

AGPs – an alternative to avoiding cancelling matches in winter

Winter is well and truly here. But don’t let that be the reason for cancelling you matches. Whether your pitch is waterlogged or frozen – there is always the option of booking an AGP. Find your closest one below.

Mitsubishi Motors Guinness Six Nations volunteer hospitality

In partnership with England Rugby, Mitsubishi Motors supports grassroots rugby by recognising and rewarding the thousands of volunteers essential to the sport through the popular Mitsubishi Motors Volunteer Recognition Programme.

As part of this programme, club volunteers who already have match tickets can register for up to four tickets for pre-match hospitality in the British Airways Fan Village at the England v Ireland Six Nations Match at Twickenham on 23 February 2020.

Hot food and a variety of beverages will be served pre- match, opening two hours before kick-off.

Tickets are limited and the aim is to thank as many volunteers as possible for their valued contributions to the game, so we ask that volunteers do not register if they have attended one of these events in the last two years. Any tickets applied for sooner will be invalidated.

Click below to register, indicating the name of each attendee, their club and if any are under 18.

And remember to wrap up warm!

PS. Nominations for the Mitsubishi Motors Volunteer of the Year Awards open in the second week in January. More information will follow in the January edition of CGU.

VAT helpline – VAT savings

Clubs are reminded that they may not need to declare VAT on bar takings at certain events, e.g. bonfire night, when they are treated as a club fundraiser and materially increase profit. Clubs are likely to treat ticket sales and outside kiosk sales as exempt from VAT but may overlook the exemption also covering the clubhouse bar as well. Clubs should check their partial exemption position before making any adjustment and take advice. The RFU VAT helpline can be contacted by calling Russell Moore on 07710 329317 or by email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..