Snow on the east coast caused Ilkley's game against Scarborough to be one of the first to be called off.

Subsequently every game bar two in the Northern Division was postponed leaving a huge number of rugby players kicking their heels and in front of their TVs watching South Africa inflict a defeat on England at Twickenham.

The consequences of the postponement are a microcosm of what happens across the economy when winter exerts its grip, as it did on Saturday.

Referees have to be told not to travel, a coach ordered for the weekend was cancelled along with a hotel booked in Scarborough for the players’ annual trip.

Scarborough had to cancel caterers at their swanky new facility.

At least three sets of Ilkley supporters had to cancel their weekend arrangements and bookings in the seaside town. Even in the world of amateur rugby there are hidden and expensive consequences of such bad weather.

One of the concerns of the administrators of the game is the number of adult participants in rugby union.

Since the heady days of the 2003 World Cup victory when numbers peaked, England’s slide down the world rankings and many other distractions have seen numbers fall.

Recently the Yorkshire RFU have conducted a survey of player numbers on given Saturdays in the season. On a league Saturday in October this year there were 3,208 players involved, an average of 42.21 per club.

Under-19 rugby players is a particular concern with something like 10 fewer teams in the county this season.

The socio-economic climate is one of the main problems and county officials are looking at ways to keep this important age group involved in the game.

Ilkley coach Hamish Pratt’s day job with the RFU is very much involved in addressing this issue.

In a nationwide RFU initiative Ilkley’s physiotherapist Mike Bryant, experienced and respected as a sports injury specialist having been involved with professional rugby league and union clubs, has been helping the RFU gather injury statistics. Injuries are often cited by young men as reasons why they cannot participate in rugby as it affects their employment chances and opportunities. Whilst the statistics dispel the fear of serious injury these risks are always in the back of players' minds.

Actually Ilkley fell below the average number of pitch attendances and well below the average for players being removed from the field of play.

They were just about in line with average for head, knee, shoulder, ankle and thigh injuries but slightly above average for various strains, bruising and lacerations.

This probably reflects on the thoroughness of Bryant and his team of physiotherapists who attend every match played by Ilkley's sides in ensuring that all injuries are properly treated regardless of nature of injury and most important that players do not take chances with their bodies and play again before the injury is fully cleared up.

This information gathering is vital to the administrators in ensuring player welfare is the highest priority.

One of the results of injury awareness in the game in recent times is the way in which scrums are set. The crouch, touch, pause, engage process was introduced to avoid high impact on engaging the scrum and the catastrophic injuries that very occasionally resulted.

A downside to this has been huge amounts of game time involved getting the scrum right and the consequent spoiling of long parts of the game as a spectacle, as Leeds Carnegie’s game at Harlequins on Sunday illustrated. Surely this will need addressing if the game is to win back its TV and stadium audiences.