THE Webb Ellis Cup, the Rugby World Cup trophy, will return to the county of Oxfordshire on May 5 as part of the nationwide Sweet Chariot Tour which includes hundreds of events across the county.

The Rugby Football Union hopes that the Sweet Chariot Tour will help raise the profile of the sport both in traditional rugby-playing areas and in regions currently under-represented in the sport.

The euphoria that followed events in Sydney has been underpinned at grassroots level by the RFU’s Rugby Making An Impact Strategy aimed at increasing participation and retention in playing, coaching, officiating and administration.

IMPACT, which stands for Inclusion, Modernisation, Partnership, Appropriate facilities, Club/school links and Training and coaching, is a three-stage blueprint for community rugby in England.

Oxford University will play host to the Sweet Chariot Tour at their Iffley Road ground and they will celebrate the arrival of the Webb Ellis Cup with an Inter College mixed touch rugby tournament as well as holding a recruitment evening for the university’s students at Tulletts.

The Sweet Chariot Tour exhibition unit will give the public the opportunity to have their photograph taken alongside the Webb Ellis Cup while there will also be several rugby displays and competitions to participate in.

The Sweet Chariot Tour is entirely free to the public. However, there will be collection buckets for voluntary donations for the tour’s charity, the 'Wooden Spoon’.

The tour takes place in association with sponsors EA SPORTS, Ford, Holiday Inn, Land Rover and Lucozade Sport.

Oxford University Sweet Chariot Tour Itinerary

Wednesday May 5

1pm-10pm Oxford University, Iffley Road
1pm-5pm Inter College mixed touch rugby tournament.
6pm-10pm Recruitment evening at Tullets (please note this event is only open to Oxford University students.

Forthcoming Constituency Bodies visits:
May 7-8 Buckinghamshire
May 9-10 Hertfordshire
May 12 Cambridge University
May 26-28 Middlesex

Main regional events
May 8 The Midsummer Place Shopping Centre, Milton Keynes
May 9 The Harlequin Centre, Watford
May 16 The Oracle Centre, Reading

SWEET CHARIOT TOUR HIGHLIGHTS SO FAR

† England’s World Cup star Mike Tindall kicked off the tour in style by flying the Webb Ellis Cup at 650mph into RAF Cosford. The pilot, Squadron Leader Simon Jessett of RAF Strike Command at Wittering, said: “I was a lot less nervous flying him than I was watching the World Cup final!”

† Republic of Ireland soccer star Steve Staunton arrived at Lichfield RFC to have his photograph taken with his young son, quipping "It's the nearest we (Ireland) are going to get to it.

† Cheshire tour co-ordinator Dave Finlay said: “I would be surprised if there was a child on the Isle of Man that didn’t see the Webb Ellis Cup during our time there.”

† At Barrow Town Hall around 1500 turned up to see the first sporting silverware in the town since the FA Trophy in 1990.

† Cumbrian police fixed the traffic lights on green and provided motorcycle escorts as 10,000 people saw the Cup in 60 hours between Barrow, Netherhall, Whitehaven, Carlisle, Kendal and Penrith.

† Jonny Wilkinson was present on the Millennium Bridge in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne for the handover of the Cup from Northumberland to Durham Rugby Unions.

† In a partnership between the RFU, Rugby Football League and Bradford City Council, 16 teams aged between 8 and 9 played tag rugby in World Cup T-shirts on an artificial pitch in Centenary Square. Instead of the normal chime the City Hall clock played ‘World in Union’ at 1pm.

†To transport the Cup around Notts, Lincs and Derby, the largest of the RFU's constituent bodies, hired a helicopter sponsored by on-line bank Egg. Pilot Geoff Dodd of Kingsmoor Aviation, said: “I have flown the Duchess of Westminster, Robbie Coltrane and even Russell Crowe around London, but never a World Cup!”

† Francis Baron accompanied the trophy into Lincoln Prison where he handed over a Notts, Lincs & Derbyshire plaque to the sister of Neil Higgins, a prison warder and member of the HMP Lincoln rugby team, who died in a road accident three weeks before.

†It was a day to remember for 15-week-old Emily Maclean, born six hours after Jonny Wilkinson dropped the winning goal. Emily and mum Nikki had their photo taken with the Cup at Leicester University’s Oadby playing fields. Tigers’ fan Nikki said: “I was in labour on November 22 but I listened to the final. My husband went out and bought a radio because there wasn’t one at the hospital.”

†The Seventh Parachute Regiment Royal Horse Artillery gave the cup an explosive welcome to the Eastern Counties. They fired a special salute to the trophy on the pitch at Colchester RFC, where thousands queued to have their picture taken with the trophy in the clubhouse.

†There was a more spiritual note to the Cup's arrival in Essex. The day started with a service at the church of St Mary Magdalen in Magdalen Laver, where William Webb Ellis, whose name the Cup bears, was the rector from 1855 to 1870.

†From the past to the present on the Kent leg of the tour, where Tessa Jowell, the Minister for Culture, Media and Sport, joined the tour when it arrived in her constituency and London Wasps fly half Alex King led a coaching session for children in Lambeth, where the local council and the RFU want to establish a community club.