Professional Game Board Chair, Chris Booy confirmed, “Although a huge amount of work is being undertaken to enable a safe return to training for Premiership clubs, more time is needed to ensure that players, staff and officials can return to a safe training environment, and that is not expected to be in place for a minimum of two weeks.”

Our Chief Executive, Tarquin McDonald shared this message:

This delay reflects the complexity involved in recommencing rugby, however, Premiership Rugby remains committed to completing the 2019/20 season during the summer and significant progress has been made in this regard.

Work has been on-going at the Club for some time based on the emerging guidance developing the protocols for return to training, working and ultimately for games at the Rec. This will continue to be developed and refined as further guidance is confirmed by the PGB. We continue to share and discuss each development with our players and staff; their welfare remains at the centre of each step we take.

With this news of the delay to training, we have taken the decision to place additional staff on furlough. All our staff have been brilliant throughout this period, and look forward to returning to work as soon as possible. We continue to operate a small team supporting our players in terms of the training and rehabilitation which is taking place at home, ensuring that when we do return our players are prepared and in the best possible condition. For a short period we now have a very limited commercial and operational staff in place, supporting business critical activity.

This means that, for a short period, we are no longer able to offer the same level of contact and service to our supporters. Please bear with us at this time, our staff are looking forward to being back at work and focusing on restart. We will bring them back to work as soon as we have clarity regarding the return to training and recommencement of matches.

In light of this, it is appropriate and important that I set out our plans in the event that the 2019/20 season is cancelled or confirmed to be played behind closed doors.

In these circumstances, we will provide a clear and fair process for credits and refunds.

We reiterate that Premiership Rugby remains committed to completing the 2019/20 season during the summer. As soon as we have clarity regarding the completion of the season we will contact our season ticket holders and match ticket holders. If for any reason it is not possible to complete those fixtures with crowds, we confirm that we will provide credits and refunds.

Season Ticket Holders

We will provide you with four options to make sure that you have full control over what you would like to do with the pro rata value of your season ticket in relation to the fixtures against London Irish, Wasps, Worcester Warriors and Gloucester Rugby.

Your credit will be automatically applied to your account if the remaining games cannot be rearranged and played in front of a crowd. You will then be able to select a percentage share for allocating the credit against each of the following options.

Option one - keep your credit

You will have the option to keep all or part of your credit in your account. You can then use this with any future purchases, including your 2020/21 season ticket, which will be available to renew once we have clarity regarding the current season. Once applied, your credit would remain in your account until you decide to use it.

Option two - gift to the Club

Many of you have asked us how you could help at this time and if there might be an option for you to gift some of your credit to the Club. This is unbelievably generous and thoughtful - thank you on behalf of everyone at the club

If you are in a position to do so, and you would like to, you will have the option to select a percentage of your credit that you would like to gift to the Club. In doing so you would help us to navigate this extraordinarily challenging time. Thank you.

Option three - donate to Bath Rugby Foundation

Right now, our charitable Foundation is delivering vital support to the most vulnerable children and young people in and around our city. Our Foundation works closely with children and young people experiencing huge challenges in life, in some instances significant neglect and abuse, and literally helps change their lives.

Prior to this crisis there were more than 8,000 children and young people in our community living in poverty, and our Foundation estimate that this number will rise to over 10,000 due to the impact of coronavirus. Unfortunately, whilst the need for their work grows, their funding has shrunk by 25% and as we look ahead our charity faces the monumental task of doing more with less.

You will have the option to select a percentage of your credit that you would like to donate to the Foundation. Doing so will undoubtedly help change the lives of children and young adults in our community – thank you.

Option four - refund

If you would prefer to take some or all of the credit as a refund, you will be able to choose a percentage and receive it as cash back in your pocket.

Match Ticket Holders for London Irish and The Clash

In the event that the 2019/20 season is cancelled or confirmed to be played behind closed doors we will automatically refund you with the amount you originally paid for your tickets.

Thank you for your patience

We would like to reiterate that this process will go live as soon as we are able to confirm details regarding the completion of the 2019/20 season.

We will write to all ticket holders with further details as soon as we are able.

Until then, thank you for your continued support. We know we will be back soon and we are all desperately looking forward to getting back to the Rec and enjoying rugby with you all as soon as we can.

Club Update following Professional Game Board Statement

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