August 16 SRU board meeting to shine light on Shute Shield restart
By MARK CASHMAN
Sydney Rugby Union president Phil Parsons has not ruled out finishing the Shute Shield competition some time in November.
“At the end of the day we want to get as much footy in as possible before the end of the year but as you can appreciate there are quite a few balls in the air at the moment,” Parsons told Rugby News.
“But it is getting to the stage where we need to make a decision whether to push ahead and try and get some sort of finality to this season or to call things off.”
The grand final venue Leichhardt Oval has been booked for every Saturday until the end of October but the making of a final decision about the season depends very much on how the pandemic and the Delta variant pans out.
The SRU board is due to meet on August 16 and from that coming together of minds some sort of road map out of this stalling of the competition can be decided.
“I’d love to be able to give you some sort of date for when we restart and when our grand final can be played but there are so many factors we are unsure of at this point in time,” Parsons added.
“The only thing certain in this environment is the uncertainty of the situation. It’s frustrating for me and everyone at all of our clubs.
“Adding some sort of clarity would be great but we just can’t do that at the moment.
“To be honest we are also uncertain about the number of clubs that will be able to get up to speed quickly after what has been 10 weeks without any rugby at relatively short notice.”
One of the things that must concern the SRU is the fact that no mention of community sport has been made in any communication from the State Government at this stage.
Then there is the fact that the NSW Cup rugby league competition was called off a fortnight ago.
IMAGE: AJF PHOTOGRAPHY