COMMUNITY RUGBY

All across the country rugby in the community is a vibrant force, adding a great deal to the friendships, health, enjoyment and sporting opportunities of those involved.

While the grassroots game continues to thrive, the annual RFU Club Questionnaire did show a slight reduction in the adult game. However, the National Clubs Development Manager has supported volunteers and staff in driving forward the RFU’s Go Play Rugby initiative, the biggest recruitment campaign launched by any sport in England.

The campaign had a high profile official launch at the House of Commons and, at the time of writing, no less than 714 clubs, 2,500 trained volunteers, 106 universities and 34 further education colleges were working to bring players back to the game. An innovative and high profile media campaign has included cinema adverts, which reached an estimated 1.9m people, online viral marketing and all the efforts have been endorsed by the current England Rugby World Cup squad. The text service which informs callers of their nearest club has had 20,000 unique users which will help us reach the target.

The target is to attract 6,000 players who have fallen by the wayside and we have been seeing many coming back into the game since the campaign took off.

The Seal of Approval accreditation of clubs with mini, junior and youth sections, continues at a pace, with the number accredited increasing from 245 to 368 and constantly increasing. We have also produced more user friendly supporting resources during the year.

Community Amateur Sports Club status has risen from 142 clubs achieving it to 290 and the estimate is that this saves them a total of in the region of £1.4m a year. We continue to work towards whole club development and are producing a package to help clubs work towards this end. We are also helping clubs to forge links with schools and further and higher education to maximise the opportunities for players in their communities.

The development team of Regional Rugby Development Managers (RRDMs) and Rugby Development Officers (RDOs) has been working extremely hard to source continued funding for the Community Rugby Coaches, who have been very successful in achieving significant increases in participation in schools and clubs.

The relationship between the RDOs and the Constituent Bodies (CBs) has continued to improve especially with support and development to the local clubs, which is so crucial to the sustainability and success of the game at grass roots level.

The Community Rugby Coach team has been a major catalyst in the growth of the game in schools and across the board. Over 1 million participants of all ages attended sessions run by Community Rugby Coaches in 2006/07 involving at least a million people and including 35,000 school based sessions. Festivals also saw 170,000 players competing and 11,000 volunteer coaches and teachers attended basic level coaching courses.