With a view to gathering more information on this pattern, a working group – led by Scottish Rugby President Ed Crozier and made up of club and council representatives from across the country – was set-up and has laid out a series of considerations for clubs.

They are as follows:
· Revised fixture schedule for leagues where there have been issues
· Relaxation of regulations to allow social teams to draw on a wider pool of players to fulfil fixtures, and enable clubs to utilise substitute players more efficiently
· A revised competition structure, with a consideration of ‘mirror leagues’ for the top tiers and ladder leagues for the lower levels.

In order to develop Scottish Rugby’s insight into this pattern, we would like your club to carefully consider and discuss the questions below, with your playing group and senior club members.

The report from Scottish Rugby’s Male Player Survey will be launched in the next week, so please consider these findings in developing your responses.

Day of games.
1. Would your club support the proactively scheduling* of reserve team matches against local opponents on Friday evenings?
- Where the home team has flood lights Yes/No
- At a neutral venue Yes/No
*Scheduling would be done when creating fixture lists, before the beginning of the season.

Timings of season
2. Would your club support having a winter break of four to five weeks in winter for
- Regional level reserve team league fixtures Yes/No
- Regional league 1st XV fixtures Yes/No
- Please state other levels/timings where a break may be appropriate

Competition Structure
3. Would your club support mirror leagues that match 1st XV fixtures
- For Premier & National 1 reserve teams Yes/No
- With staggered kick off times Yes/No

4. Would your club support a local ladder league
- For your lowest team Yes/No
- For a new social/occasional team Yes/No

Relaxing Regulations
5. Would your club support the relaxing of regulations to:
- Allow players to play for multiple teams in the reserve leagues where there is no promotion/relegation Yes/No
- Increase maximum number of substitutions where a reserve team game has been cancelled Yes/No
- Enable cover for positions to be provided by players/substitutes from reserve sides that are present Yes/No

To provide your feedback, and for more information, please click here.

The deadline for your feedback entries is Friday 20 November.