Contrasting recruitment plans for Yorkshire’s rugby union clubs

For others, the financial implications of the coronavirus crisis have hit far harder.

With so much uncertainty surrounding the issue of when it will be safe for the sport to return, many teams find themselves in a state of limbo at a time when they would normally be at the advanced stages of their close-season recruitment drives.

Down in South Yorkshire, National Two outfit Sheffield Tigers have managed to add 10 new faces to their first-team squad by virtue of “getting their business done early”. To the north, newly-promoted Harrogate have agreed deals for 2020/21 with a similar number of players.

Meanwhile, in the west of the county, another of the Broad Acres’ fourth-tier teams has been forced into taking more drastic steps to safeguard its long-term future.

Cost-cutting measures mean that Huddersfield RUFC will not be paying any of their players next term, such has been the impact of the loss of revenue generated by hosting matches and private events at their ground.

“It’s obviously been a really tough time for everyone in the game – and at our club, so we’ve taken this approach to try and protect us long-term,” Huddersfield head coach Gareth Lewis explained.

“The decision not to pay players is not one that we have taken lightly because we’ve been building things on a professional level for a number of years.

“It’s definitely going to be challenging competing in this league, but we’ve managed to retain the vast majority of our squad and the spine of the team is still strong, so I think we can do okay next season.

“We’ve lost a couple to Otley, who are in the division below now but are still paying, which is disappointing. However, although recruitment has been difficult, we’ve been approached by some good young players who want to join us, and that’s a posiitive.

“It will be a challenge next season, but I like a challenge.”

While Huddersfield might be facing a more difficult time of it on the field in 2020/21, Sheffield Tigers are looking to build on last season’s 12th-placed finish and have added strength-in-depth, with ex-Doncaster Knights and Rotherham Titans back-row forward Tom Calladine their marquee signing.

“The situation with coronavirus has made everything much harder, but we’ve been quite lucky because we got our business done early,” revealed player-coach Jamie Broadley.

“Moving quickly in the summer is something that we have to do be because we’re not a big fish and don’t have loads of cash to throw about like some clubs.

“We don’t have a sugar daddy, we‘re backed by a number of different small businesses and sponsors and that model is one that works for us.

“There were areas where we knew we needed to strengthen. We needed more depth in our pack and we’ve been able to add that, without really losing anyone.

“I’m happy with our recruitment and even more pleased that almost all of our existing players have re-signed.”

The state of play at Harrogate, promoted to National Two as North Premier runners-up last term, bears comparison to the situations at both Sheffield and Huddersfield.

While the Rudding Lane outfit have managed to bolster their ranks, they are doing so on a shoestring.

‘Gate’s budget was a long way from being one of the bigger ones in the division below, and director of rugby Dave Doherty predicts that they will be the lowest National Two payers - bar Huddersfield - in 2020/21.

“Nobody comes to Harrogate for the cash anyway, but things have definitely been made more difficult by the current situation,” he said.

“There are some players who we targeted and we just can’t offer them what they’re looking for. We can only pay what we can pay.

“I think we’ll be near rock-bottom in National Two in terms of budget, however the good thing is that we know players are signing for us for the right reasons.

“We have a pretty settled core of players who have been here for years and we’ve agreed terms with a number of other boys, who will provide that competition for places that will be so important.

“We needed to strengthen, there is a big focus on proving that we deserved our promotion to National Two.”

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