Beach rugby will come to land-locked Birmingham on Wednesday Augsut 15 as part of the Rugby Football Union's Go Play Rugby initiative.
Part of the city's Centenary Square will be turned into a temporary beach rugby pitch for a have-a-go session followed by matches event involving Greater Birmingham clubs.
Qualified coaches will be on hand from 10am to 6pm to assist in the have a go-sessions which will be open to players of all abilities and experience. Beach rugby is a non-contact version of rugby which can be played by men and women of all ages.
From 6pm Birmingham clubs will take over the beach pitch to play games involving sum of the players they have all recruited as part of the Go Play Rugby programme. The matches will involve teams of five.
Go Play Rugby, which was launched before the media at Bath on July 20, is believed to be the largest sporting recruitment drive ever mounted by a single sports governing body in the United Kingdom.
It will involve more than 600 clubs and 130 universities and colleges in an ambitious effort to bring players back to the game and win new converts.
It is a £1million campaign, supported through a generous £500,000 grant from the National Sports Foundation that backs up investment of £300,000 from the Rugby Football Foundation and £200,000 from Go Play Rugby sponsors the Chelsea Building Society. England Rugby sponsors O2 are also supporting the project.
England's World Cup victory in 2003 encouraged thousands of new players to take up the game, including 25,000 children inspired by the heroics of Jonny Wilkinson and his teammates on that dramatic night in Sydney four years ago.
The RFU believes that there are thousands more adults out there who have either drifted away from the game or are potential new recruits and we will reach out to them during the build-up to this year's tournament and while Brian Ashton's side are in action in France this September.
The RFU wants the campaign to recruit and retain at least 6,000 extra players in total, people whose lives will be enriched by the social, health and fitness benefits of our game.
To do so the RFU campaign team will be engaging a group of 18 to 30 year-olds using highly sophisticated methods.
A nationwide print and broadcast media campaign, innovative promotional materials and the use of email, the internet and text messaging will help the RFU connect with a generation that uses such technology every day. The www.goplayrugby.com website and 64411 text number will direct new players to clubs ready to welcome them into the rugby family.
The methods were successfully trialled in a pilot Go Play Rugby project in Surrey last season that increased adult player numbers in the county by seven per cent in less than three months.
But all those new techniques need to be underpinned by a more human element: the thousands of volunteers in clubs throughout the country whose dedication enables the grassroots game to prosper.
Further information about the Birmingham Beach Rugby event can be obtained from Ben Waterhouse, RFU Rugby Development Officer for North Midlands, on 07730 814156.
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