After careful consideration and extensive consultation with clubs across England, we have decided to delay the start of the competitive community game season until the week commencing Monday 21 September. We appreciate this will be disappointing news to clubs, players and volunteers who have been getting ready for and looking forward to the new season but there are a range of factors we’ve considered carefully before making this decision.

Training can continue but it is important pitch safety is assessed before every session and RFU guidance is followed on modifying contact activity on hard grounds.

All rugby activity, including that taking place outside of RFU league matches is subject to continual review and the RFU expects to issue further guidance to clubs, CB’s, schools, colleges and universities in the coming weeks or when new information is available.

As outlined in our recent guidance on managing pitches and training in drought conditions, prolonged dry weather has left many grounds across the country hard and unsuitable for safe full-contact activity. With no meaningful or lengthy spells of rain currently forecast, these ground conditions are not expected to improve significantly in the short term.

With this in mind, we have taken the decision to delay and to give everyone certainty now. We understand a delayed start has real practical implications - travel bookings, catering and food orders, volunteer planning and more - and we know volunteers always value as much time as possible to plan around a confirmed date rather than a moving target.

This decision has been made on three grounds:

- Player welfare - hard, dry pitches increase the risk of injury, particularly in the opening weeks of the season when players are returning to full contact. We recognise that many clubs have had to limit contact training in pre-season training due to the pitch conditions. We want players to return to competition safely and adequately prepared.

- Competition integrity - starting the season on pitches that aren't fit for purpose risks uneven conditions and disruption across fixtures as well as offering advantages for those clubs able to prepare players during pre-season using Artificial Grass Pitches (AGP) - undermining fair competition from the outset.

- Planning - a clear, decisive two-week delay gives clubs, schools, colleges and universities the certainty needed to plan training, fixtures, travel and logistics with confidence.