Over the past months members of Chinnor RFC have been working with the board and with our Director of Rugby, Matt Williams, to cement a new partnership with Saracens RFC. Saracens, the champions both domestically and in Europe, are forging something simply unique at Allianz Park and we believe they would be a great partner for us as we continue to develop. With a culture built on honesty, discipline, humility and workrate we feel we share so much of the same values and believe that they can act as a great guide for us at Chinnor RFC. This relationship will grow over time as we establish ways of working with each other, but our starting points will be:

Coach Education and Coaching Support
This programme is designed to continue to improve our standard of coaching at all levels and to maintain the quality of mini and junior rugby as players make their way through the age groups. A representative of Saracens will deliver a group session to our coaches. They will also invite our more senior coaches to participate in Elite Coach Education Sessions that take place periodically at Allianz Park. On top of this they hope to be able to offer coaching support, when available, at the request of the club.

Rugby Camps
We are working hard on this and currently have earmarked February 16th & 17th (Thursday/Friday) for a joint camp at Chinnor. More on this very shortly.

Match Day Festivals
We already have a strong presence here built by our junior section. We will continue to pursue this for the rest of the season and we will make sure we continue to keep in the loop with regard to upcoming festivals.

Match Day experiences, Wembley Pride in Unity Parade
Saracens can arrange a range of bespoke visits for Chinnor to Allianz Park for matches where this complements our own playing schedule. In addition to this, as a partner club, we are encouraged to attend Derby Day at Wembley where they traditionally take on Harlequins (this year on April 8th 2017). We plan to participate in this and as a partner club we are invited to take part in the “Pride in Unity” Parade prior to Kick Off, where we will have the opportunity to walk around the pitch.

Brand association
We will associate ourselves through the use of a Saracens Partner Club Logo which you will see on our website and other communications. We will also link up with Sarries on their Twitter page @sarriesrugbydev which we will use to continue to raise our profile.

Developing off the pitch
Saracens have offered to share with us how they approach being a professional outfit off the pitch. As we grow, our area expands and we continue to develop in the community, there will be invaluable commercial and other lessons for us to learn from the top club in Europe.

We are all very excited by this partnership. It reflects where we are and where we intend to go as a club. We particularly hope it will inspire our youngsters and those who are thinking of putting a toe in the water of our wonderful game to join us.