European Deaf Rugby Update

England Deaf Rugby Union attended the European Deaf Rugby meeting on 9th/10th April 2005 in Gatwick along with delegates from Wales Deaf, Scotland Deaf and France Deaf Rugby Unions (we all are the founder members of the new created European Deaf Rugby). It was agreed that we are now focusing on establishing partners with the relevant rugby organisations such as FIRA (IRB delegates responsibility for the development of rugby in Europe to the FIRA), IRB, national rugby unions, etc; and on development & support on other prospective deaf rugby nations such as Ireland, Spain, for example.

Key issues from two days meeting were to discuss the fixtures, one-week tournament (probably in Wales), DRWC and the objectives, roles and accountabilities of EDR. Marcel Hirshman and Steve Wherry have taken on additional responsibilities to make European Deaf Rugby work (e.g. 4 Deaf Rugby Nations = 1 strong voice) - we are focusing on "draft EDR Constitution" and "Participation Agreement" which should be an excellent document for us to work from to develop the agreement between the Deaf Rugby Nations e.g. EDRU, WDRU, etc and the respective national rugby unions e.g. RFU, WRU, and set up the structure for Four (or more) Deaf Nations Championships.