In order to create an account in GMS for an individual aged 18 or over, a unique email address must be attached to the account being created. This means the email address cannot already exist against an existing account.
It is imperative that the RFU are able to manage records of rugby competitions and of rugby players as efficiently as possible, and in compliance with Data Protection legislation (GDPR). The RFU need to be able to determine that each record held in the GMS database corresponds to a unique person, and that we can manage the preferences of that person. In order to maintain platform security, an individual must be able to retrieve their account details from a verified unique email address.
For this reason, every record in GMS must correspond to a UNIQUE email address, and that the email address is VERIFIED as 'active'. Email addresses that are already linked to a record in GMS can't be used for new records.
The RFU is aware that there is a large amount of historical data in GMS that hasn’t been updated recently. This causes a challenge, especially where existing records contain email addresses linked to more than one person’s account or profile. This is most often the case for children and parent accounts/profiles.
An exercise is currently underway to clean up this data for adult players. E-mail addresses that were in the past inputted against a child’s record (which for age grade players is not necessary as they sit under their parent’s account- How to add a family member), and that are already against the parent are being removed. Therefore ensuring that the parent account only has unique email details linked to it.
Once a child reaches the age of taking control of their account, a parent will be able to add a different email address unique to that child to the child's account. The RFU have communicated the steps being taken to remove duplicated emails to Age Grade Registrars and Data Officers. This removal was an automated process for those U15s and was completed by the RFU in December 2020.