Every time i read something about this subject its always in the same format. i.e.
the players (juniors and a lot of OA as well) want to play in the summer.

The administrators like Mr Roger Fagge from Yorkshire always say stop in winter.

Its so frustrating, that the administrators control what the players want. WE do not want to play in the cold freezing temperatures of winter. Mr Fagge's letter above is very bias to staying in winter- he is very far away from what his members want!!(albeit i'm only a junior member and from North West at that).

And a valid one, but those involved in junior rugby know the numbers drop in Dec/Jan anyone by those that are playing for 'fun'.

The intake would be much more as we're not competing with the football season. Not every family can go away for 2 weeks at the same time, teams would deal with it just like they do when it's half term etc. in the winter.

The proposal as I understand it is to have 2 halves to the year:

Sept - Nov and Mar - July. No fixtures during holidays.

i can see both sides of the situation,has a coach of an u10s team my own personal view is we should be playing from march to october, HOWEVER the rfl and barla need to put together a plan to properly make sure that pitches are fit and safe for a heavy contact sport.

for example my team played last saturday on pitch which only had about 60% of the field with a grass covering,this after only a two week dry period and the pitch was like a car park,i had kids with cut and bruised knees and elbows and grazes on their legs and backs.

there is no doubt that in training kids learn far more in summer than in the winter but again we dont train with any contact in the summer due to the risk of injury to players,imo the rfl and barla need to run a pilot scheme possibly using the conference clubs or clubs mark teams to trial summer rugby and fund the clubs to ensure that pitches are properly maintained and watered to ensure safe ground for kids to play on,that way they can judge the cost of keeping well maintained pitches and asess the affects of school holidays and the numbers playing the game before passing this on to clubs outside the conferance club mark structure.

Players are just as likely to get twisted ankles in the mud, or hypothermia from the cold. If pitches are that hard, then they are obviously poor pitches anyway and not suitable in either summer or winter. The school holidays argument is stupid - some players may miss the odd game or two, but participation rates would double so this wouldn't have any impact at all.

The cost of maintaining pitches would equal or be less than what it costs for teams to pay for winter training facilities. Of course things would need to change regarding the pitches, if rules are put in place they should be adhered to.

No winter rugby on them for starters would make them alot better!