Please note the details above regarding our AGM next month at Camborne RFC 7 pm start.
Jane Bell
Hon. Sec CRFU
Cornwall RFU Bids Farewell to Commercial Lead Tanya Thomas
The Cornwall Rugby Football Union (CRFU) has announced that Tanya Thomas, the driving
force behind the union’s commercial and sponsorship success, is standing down from her
role.
Since joining the team in December 2023 as the CRFU’s first Commercial Lead , Tanya has
been a key figure in modernizing the CRFU’s commercial approach and strengthening its
ties to the local community.
Tanya stepped into the role with a vision to revitalize how the CRFU engaged with partners.
From securing vital sponsorships to meticulously arranging high-profile events, she ensured
that the “Black and Gold” remained a prestigious brand for local and national businesses
alike.
Her ability to think outside the box allowed the union to navigate a changing financial
landscape, ensuring that rugby in the county remained well-supported at every level.
Tanya’s passion for the game and the unique culture of the sport in Cornwall ensured the
CRFU’s heritage was acknowledged while moving toward a sustainable future.
The CRFU extends its thanks to Tanya for her service. We wish her the very best of luck and
every success in her future career.
The CRFU will be advertising this role in the next few days and would encourage suitable
candidates to apply
Financial AGM
The CRFU’s Financial AGM will be held on Wednesday 22nd October 7pm at Camborne RFC.
Agenda and accounts have been sent out to clubs ahead of the meeting.
Floyd Steadman CRFU’s new Patron
The Cornwall Rugby Football Union ( CRFU ) are delighted to announce that Floyd Steadman OBE DL Hon D Ed has accepted an invitation to become our Patron.
Floyd has led an incredible life that has been well documented in the media and in his book, “A Week One Summer”. His parents came to the UK in 1956 as part of the Windrush Generation, answering the call to help rebuild the motherland after the destruction of the Second World War.
His family along with many others suffered racism and discrimination, while Floyd also had an abusive father, whom his mother left. His father rejected him and he spent 7 years in care from the age of 10.
Floyd developed a love for rugby at school and eventually attended Borough Road College to train as a PE Teacher. His rugby career is most closely associated with Saracens Rugby Club who he began playing for in the late 1970s.
He quickly established himself as a gifted scrum-half becoming the first black captain of a Premiership rugby club when he led Saracens at the age of 23. Floyd played a total of 469 Saracens games and is a member of Saracens Hall of Fame.
Floyd’s wife was a Madron girl, Denise Friggens, who sadly died in 2016. With Denise’s sister Sally married to Phil Westren, Floyd played several games for the Pirates, once playing for Saracens against Northampton before turning out for the Pirates against St Ives the next day having travelled straight down after the game.
Floyd also played for the Barbarians and Middlesex, captaining them in the 1989/90 County Championship semi-final against Cornwall at Redruth. The game was drawn but Middlesex went through on most tries scored.
When Floyd’s Rose Award was conferred on him by the RFU Council in 2023 he became the sole recipient of this annual recognition of a “remarkable contribution to the game”.
Parallel to his rugby career Floyd has enjoyed a very successful career in education holding positions as a Deputy Headteacher and Headteacher at several schools.
Floyd was awarded the OBE in the first of King Charles’s New Year’s Honours Lists in January 2023 for services to rugby, education and charity.
On retiring to Cornwall Floyd lives in Ludgvan close to his Cornish family. He was recently appointed a Deputy Lieutenant, supporting the Lord Lieutenant in Cornwall, and sometimes deputising for him. The Lord Lieutenants are representatives of the King for each county in the UK and, with Floyd’s expertise in education and sport, he is an immense asset to the life of Cornwall.
Floyd continues to travel and give talks stressing the need to continually challenge perceptions, break down barriers, and address unconscious bias within ourselves and our community. “I love what I do and I hope I can continue to make a difference. I suffered racial abuse when I was playing, and throughout many periods of my life, and I’m dedicated to trying to change people’s perceptions and attitudes”
CRFU Handbook 25/26 season
The current handbook can be accessed here.
Have your say on how rugby is run
| View in browser News | Tickets | Store HAVE YOUR SAY ON HOW RUGBY IS RUN IN ENGLAND A nationwide public consultation has been launched on potential changes to the RFU’s governance and representative structures. Your feedback that the current decision-making structure of the RFU is complex and unwieldy and that the game feels excluded, has been heard. This is your chance to give your views on how rugby is run across England, led by a desire to better embed game representation directly within decision-making bodies. TAKE PART >  News | Tickets | Store © All Rights Reserved. Please do not reply to this email. Unsubscribe | Privacy | Contact Us Rugby Football Union, Rugby House, Allianz Stadium, 200 Whitton Road, Twickenham, Middlesex, TW2 7BA |
Update from our roadshow of English Clubs from RFU Board Interim Chair, Sir Bill Beaumont
Like me, I know you will have all enjoyed England’s thrilling win over France in the Guinness Men’s Six Nations last weekend and will be looking forward to the Red Roses participating in the Guinness Six Nations and a home Rugby World Cup. I also recognise that while our national teams always attract the most attention and are used as a barometer for the state of English rugby, the present and future of English rugby is as much in the hands of you – our club administrators and volunteers, our players, match officials, coaches and parents – as it is in the hands of the 23 players in white at Allianz Stadium. It’s been just over a month since I first wrote to you when I was appointed to the role of Interim Chair of the Rugby Football Union Board and addressed the call for a Special General Meeting (SGM). In response to the calling of the SGM, I promised to hit the road on a nationwide tour to listen to the concerns, challenges and thoughts of the community game. We are now around halfway through this nationwide tour. So far, we – myself, RFU President Rob Udwin; Bill Sweeney, our CEO; Steve Grainger, Executive Director Rugby Development; David Roberts, Chair of the Community Game Board; Malcolm Wharton, Chair of the Governance Review Group: Deborah Griffin, Senior Vice President and luminaries of our game such as Jason Leonard and John Inverdale – have held 11 roadshows, eight in person, three virtual and have attended five club visits between roadshows. Representatives of around 250 clubs have attended, and a further seven roadshows are due to take place between now and 20 February. I thought it would be useful to share some insights we have heard so far. There have been three types of challenges raised – ones that have re-enforced things we were aware of and are addressing; ones we can address easily; and some we did not previously fully understand. We have heard we need to improve our governance structures, to improve representation from the community game and ensure voices of the community game are heard and involved in decision making. This is something we want too and why we have a Governance and Representation Review underway, however, the feedback we have heard underlines the need for this work to be an absolute priority and for the work to be accelerated. We hear loud and clear that the communications from the RFU to the community game have not been as clear or consistent as they could be. This letter aims to start to improve that, and I will be providing further updates once the nationwide tour is complete to reflect our desire to engage with you on the big issues facing the community game. Many of you have mentioned competition structures. We recognise that clubs’ money and volunteers’ time are precious resources and that means there is a need for more decision making around leagues and fixtures at a local level. We will consider appropriate changes which do not compromise the competitiveness of the league system whilst giving greater flexibility around structures and regulations at local level. Challenges to adult male participation were also raised. This is not a problem unique to rugby as a sport, nor to England as a Union. However, you look to us to lead and it is only right that this is a priority and we want to work with you to address this ensuring our sport stays strong. You told us the Game Management System (GMS) is challenging and confusing for volunteers administering the game. We already have a significant improvement plan in train for this as part of our wider Digital Transformation strategy. However, we take on board this feedback and will accelerate this, re-enforce the importance of user groups and look to remove some of the lower priority functions within it. You told us we need to do more to promote rugby in schools and help clubs engage with them and to support more universities to keep players playing. In response to the first of these we have already embarked on a major programme to take T1 Rugby into schools, giving teachers the confidence and support to introduce more young people to the oval ball and ultimately to help them into our clubs, whilst also committing to an investment into School Rugby Managers, locally based people helping to manage this. We have also heard some great stories of clubs doing this for themselves and we commit to engaging more with them to support their work. On Universities we are expanding the network of activators on university sites and will look to promote this more widely. In respect of the pathways, we must allow young players to follow their dreams as far as they can through the player development groups and academy systems while also working with the Premiership to actively retain good players in the community game. Finally, we have heard questions about the governance of the Union itself. Some related to financial performance or executive pay. I promised we would publish the findings of the independent Freshfields review on the bonus award, and we commit to doing so in full. More often, however, we were asked: whether the RFU governance is fit for purpose, does the current system represent the views and concerns of Clubs. We have also heard the need to devolve more decisions – on competition structures, priorities, and resource allocation to a more local level, where the needs and solutions are best known. Bill Sweeney and his team have a strategy in place – signed off by the Board and Council- to address these challenges, long before the SGM was called. In my letter of January 10, I mentioned those who had pushed for the SGM had done so without setting out an alternative vision. As I wrote last month, “we all want winning men’s and women’s England teams, and this can’t happen without a thriving community game…If we work together, we will succeed.” The listening exercise which we are in the midst of will, I believe, lay the foundations for future success for both the elite and community game. Achieving a common understanding of a shared purpose and vision for the RFU we can all get behind – just as we would get behind the national teams – is as important for me as continuing the men’s first XV’s form into the Calcutta Cup. |
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CRFU Finance AGM & Clubs Forum
All clubs are invited to the CRFU Financial AGM & Clubs Forum at Camborne RFC on Wednesday 23rd October 2024 at 7 pm.
Honorary Treasurer, Ashley Shopland will present the accounts and answer any questions you may have.
We will also be making a couple of presentations held over from the June AGM.
We will follow the formal part of the evening with a Clubs Forum. This year we will focus on “What does the CRFU do for you.”
This will be an opportunity to highlight our CRFU team and show clubs some of the work we do.
You will be able to put names to faces and ask questions about any areas within our remit.
There will be 2 rugby balls available to each club that attends.
Also, CRFU handbooks will be available for those clubs whom have not yet received or collected them.
RFU’s zero betting policy.
| With the beginning of 2023/24 professional and international rugby season, we wanted to remind you of the RFU’s zero betting policy. |
| All bets are off! Important Regulation – Anti-Corruption & Betting With the beginning of 2023/24 professional and international rugby season, we wanted to remind you again of the RFU’s zero betting policy on rugby union anywhere in the world. There are important regulations in place protecting the integrity of rugby that affect everybody in the professional and semi-professional game RFU Regulation 17 (Anti-Corruption and Betting), so please remind yourself of the following messages to ensure you and our sport stay protected: DO NOT bet on any rugby match (or ask anyone to place a bet for you) anywhere in the world. DO NOT misuse or pass on inside information e.g. details of injuries, selection, etc. if not already public knowledge. Be careful on social media! (What is Inside Information? – see below) DO NOT accept money or gifts from anyone who is betting on rugby or in return for giving inside information or underperforming in a match. DO NOT fix or attempt to fix any part of a match. REPORT any suspicious or unusual approach or activity to the RFU Anti-Corruption Officer (0208 831 7696), to an RFU, PRL or RPA official, or to the Anti-Corruption hotline on 0208 831 6789 or email confidential@rfu.com. This applies to everybody involved in the professional and semi-professional game and is regardless of whether you are directly involved in a match or whether you gain from the bet. It also applies to all forms of betting. |
| What are the regulations? To see a full version of the Anti-Corruption Regulations, please see RFU Regulation 17 (Anti-Corruption and Betting). Failure to comply with the regulations will result in sanction. What is inside information? In short, Inside Information is any non-public information relating to rugby which you are aware of due to your involvement in the sport. Depending on your role, you may have access to different types of Inside Information. Having Inside Information is inevitable in many roles and does not breach the Regulations in itself. It is how you treat that information that is important. Players, coaches and other people involved with teams If you are a player, coach, team doctor/physiotherapist, analyst or someone else involved with a team, the Inside Information you acquire could include: tactics, strategies, team selections, intended substitutions, team injuries, form, who is kicking off, winner of the toss, pitch/weather conditions (for example, before the public are in the stadium), citings and suspensions, detailed video analysis information and statistics not available to the public, etc. until/unless such information becomes public knowledge. Match officials and other people involved in officiating If you are a match official or someone involved with the match officials such as a performance reviewer or selector, the Inside Information you acquire could include: referee appointments, who is kicking off, winner of the toss, pitch/weather conditions (for example, before the public are in the stadium), how the match will be refereed, citings and suspensions, detailed video analysis information and statistics not available to the public, etc. until/unless such information becomes public knowledge. People involved in rugby administration If you are an administrator or volunteer in a Union, Association or Club, for example, the Inside Information you have could include: coaching and captaincy appointments, fixture scheduling information, team selections, referee appointments, tactics, strategies, team selections, intended substitutions, team injuries, form, pitch/weather conditions (for example, before the public are in the stadium), citings and suspensions, etc. until such information becomes public knowledge. People associated with others involved in Rugby Union If you are a family member, friend or associate of any of the above people you could also become privy to this Inside Information through your connection to that person. |
Ashley Shopland – new CRFU Hon. Treasurer
The CRFU are pleased to announce that Ashley Shopland has accepted the role as Hon. Treasurer following due process.
Ashley takes over from Andy Richards who has been in post for 5 years and feels now is the right time to call it a day, the whole County thanks Andy for all his work and for the professional and open way he has managed the role. The CRFU would also like to wish Andy every success back at Bodmin RFC where has taken on treasurer responsibilities.
Andy said ‘I’ve really enjoyed the last 5 years working with the Management Board, and wish Ashley every success. Change is good and I’m sure the clubs and County will enjoy working with him.’
In taking the role Ashley said ‘I’m delighted and honoured to have been appointed Hon. Treasurer on the Management Board of the CRFU. My long-standing passion for the game, together with the experience I’ve gained over many years in business, will hopefully prove of value on the board and for the continued development of rugby in Cornwall.’
On the appointment County Chairman Dave Saunter added ‘ I’m personally very grateful for all the work Andy has done on behalf of the County, we came almost as a package and we’ve really enjoyed the challenge of bringing the County through Covid etc. In Ashley we have found an excellent replacement who I’m sure will rise to the challenge, much as he did with his Cricket and career. I wish him every success and I’m sure all will do their best to make him welcome.
Welcome aboard Ashley.
