Summer rugby may maximise playing time says Ross Sutherland club president
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Ross Sutherland club president John Scott has suggested that summer rugby may be a way to maximise the amount of play in 2021.
Scottish Rugby confirmed last week that the upcoming season would be delayed until January at the earliest due to the progression of the pandemic.
Even if it is possible for competitions to begin from then, clubs face the prospect of a drastically shortened season with the campaign normally coming to an end in April.
One alternative plan that could give the most opportunity to play next year is to extend the 2020/21 campaign into the summer.
That has been suggested by other Ross Sutherland members in the past, and it is something Scott would not object to considering.
“While I would like to see us get going in January, chances are it might not be straight away,” he explained.
“In the past we’ve had suggestions from committee members that we look at summer rugby, who knows, that might be one of the options the SRU look at.
“We’ve got to be open to all possible ideas. For us as a club, in many ways playing rugby through the summer would suit us better.
“In December and January lots of matches get called off due to weather.
“It may be that we end up with a spring and early summer season, and then we have a short break and go again later on. If that’s the case, we will just adapt.”
Any suggestion of a switch to summer rugby is likely to be met with resistance from some parts of the game.
For all involved though, the sport is in an unprecedented state of stasis, so Scott believes rugby should be open to experimentation – even if it is just on a temporary basis.
“Covid-19 has given us a good opportunity to try different things,” Scott reasoned.
“I think we shouldn’t pass up the chance to try different things if the potential is there.
“It may be that we try things and they work, but maybe they don’t, and we make an informed decision and move on from there.
“If we had no rugby for example until February, I would hate for the season to stop in April, so why not extend it a bit and go into spring and early summer to give us a meaningful season?
“It would be frustrating to get eight weeks of rugby, you want to try and get longer than that.”
