COVID could rob rugby of a generation of players claims City of Derry Head Coach

O’Kane, whose Derry side were due to meet Bangor at Judges Road this weekend, was speaking after the IRFU confirmed the suspension of the Men’s and Women’s Energia Community Series in all four provinces, with only rugby’s professional level exempt from the suspension. The break follows the N.I. Executive’s announcement on Wednesday of an increase in restrictions which include “no organised contact sport involving household mixing other than at elite level.”

There had been hopes the Energia Series would be included in the exemptions given it and the All Ireland League is a national competition but following discussions on Thursday, it was confirmed there would be no club rugby for the duration of the lockdown which is due to be re-evaluated on the second week of November.

By that stage City of Derry, who have yet to play a competitive game since the restart, will have gone more than nine weeks without a game, and O’Kane is worried for the future if a path through the pandemic cannot be found.

“At the end of this block of four weeks there was to be another block of four Energia Series fixtures and that’s unlikely to happen now,” admitted O’Kane, “What we’ve been told is the best we can hope for is groups of 15 non-contact training so, that being the case, we are not going to be playing rugby in four weeks’ time.

“We’ll have to wait to get clarification on exactly what we can do in training during this period. That’s basically where we are at. We appear to be back to square one again in regards to playing.

“We’ll have to see what the authorities can come up in regards to helping clubs because there could be a few disappearing if it continues like this.

“The aim has to be the All Ireland League. These restrictions take us up to November 13th, I think, when they will be re-assessed. The next block of games is to start of November 21st so that’s not going to happen. Teams would not be ready.

“The All Ireland League starts on January 9th so I would say you’re talking about restarting a pre-season, if you are allowed to do so, in mid-November through December. That would be interesting in itself given the weather etc. and then trying to get up and running for January.”

O’Kane says Derry will continue to employ a safety first approach to the coronavirus crisis but he admits he is worried for the long term health of the sport.

“They are worrying times for the sport, without doubt,” he conceded, “We could lose a generation and that’s not being overly dramatic. Rugby could lose a generation of players by the time this is all over.

“You will see players who are coming toward the end of their careers calling time early. You are talking about almost a full year without club rugby very shortly and that is huge. Schools aren’t able to play and clubs aren’t able to function. Sponsors are disappearing, clubs’ incomes are disappearing, it is very worrying for the long term as well as the short term.”

O’Kane was fully aware that even had tomorrow’s fixture against Bangor gone ahead, his team would have been vastly under strength due to players being ill, self isolating or forced to step back with a family member shielding but he says they were prepared to take the hit in order to keep the club running.

“It has been a bit of a nightmare in terms of preparation over recent weeks. We had 16 lads out training on Tuesday night. We are not allowed anything beyond the Firsts squad and that is what is left of it. I don’t know how other clubs are being affected but for us, it’s about keeping the thing alive. I certainly wanted to keep the games going and try to compete as best we could.

“Saturday would have been five weeks since we had a competitive game. If I’m calling a spade a spade, we were probably throwing ourselves under the bus a little in terms of being competitive against a team that has been playing consistently over the past few weeks.

“Now, we’ll probably wait to hear definitively what we can and can’t do, if anything, before making any decisions on training etc. Once we know what is permitted we can start to build from there again. We will have to use the AIL date as a target date, there is not much more we can do.

“We’ll give it a couple of weeks, see how the situation is when the dust settles, and look at what ways we can move forward.”