Hope everyone is well and looking forward to the restart of rugby on Wednesday 14th August. Before then, there’s something I need to ask you all to do please: register to play rugby for us with the RFU. You need to do this prior to returning to training - until you’ve done this, you can’t participate in rugby activities including training or games. We will be checking this at the first training session because it’s mandatory.

Why?
As you may have heard, from the 2024/25 season, all players, in all formats of the game (including non-contact), are required to register themselves annually to play rugby within RFU member clubs using the RFU’s Game Management System (GMS) online. This is a change from previous seasons, when this was done for you by the Club.

How?
In the past, the Club registered you in the GMS when you joined the club, and re-registered you every season that you were playing. So almost all of you will already have a GMS account that we created for you, using the details you provided us through Pitchero. You’ll have received an email from the RFU at the time (titled “Birmingham Bulls RFC: GMS Account Created” or similar), inviting you to login to your account and verify your email address.
If you followed this link at the time and set up an account, you can use those details to log in to the GMS.

The website is englandrugby.com/registertoplay

The link to log in is in the top right corner.

If you haven’t set up an account, you’ll need to go to the same website, put in the email address that you supplied us with when you registered, and click ‘Forgot Password’. If you’re not sure what the email address you used was, contact me on secretary@birminghambullsrfc.com and I will help you find it.

Once you’re logged in, the registration process is simple; you need to select ‘Renew’, review and update your details (please be aware that if your initial registration was more than a few years ago, this data may be empty or contain random characters), and complete the registration. It’s easiest if you follow the instructions in the video below.

https://youtu.be/OPVHOujOhD4

Please note, the move to player registration in GMS does not replace Pitchero as the main means of contact between you and the club.

If you play for another club beside Bulls (e.g. if you play at university during term time, or with another club in your hometown), providing this is at a similar level of rugby this is acceptable, but you do need to register for both clubs in order to play. If you have any questions or concerns on this, please email or speak to me.

Thanks for your help!

Tim Marshall
Club Secretary