Portsmouth RFC coach concerned his players could ‘drift off’ to other sports during rugby’s lockdown

The Portsmouth RFC head coach admitted it could become a problem the longer the sport remained shutdown.

Competitive rugby below Premiership and Championship levels has not been played in England since the coronavirus outbreak in March.

What's more, the RFU have announced all amateur competitive leagues in the 2020/21 season have been cancelled.

While other sports such as football, cricket, tennis and hockey have managed safe returns to proceedings, rugby has yet to do so.

The governing body have set out a Return to Rugby roadmap but planned October and November restart dates were scrapped.

Meanwhile, a January resumption has been thrown into doubt with the country currently in the midst of a second lockdown until December.

Richards has seen some of his Portsmouth squad members temporarily join a Sunday League football team as they search for a competitive sporting fix.

Although those players have remained training with the club, he is concerned more adults and juniors could permanently decide to take up another sport if a safe return to action cannot be found in the months ahead.

‘You just worry about the sport in general,' said Richards.

‘Rugby is in an even more difficult situation then some other sports because of the nature of the game.

‘You worry about the game haemorrhaging players to other sports.

‘I know some of our lads were going off and playing some Sunday League football.

‘They just wanted to play some competitive sport and they weren’t able to do that in a rugby environment.

‘So to complement their rugby training, they were still training, they decided to go off and play some Sunday League football at the same time.

‘The longer rugby is not able to operate, you run the risk of players drifting off and doing other things.'