|
|
|
|
|||
| Webb Ellis Cup to visit Warwickshire | |||
|
BACK ON WORLD CUP DUTY IN COVENTRY England rugby hero Neil Back will be parading the Rugby World Cup trophy in his home town of Coventry on Sunday May 2. Back, the Leicester Tigers captain, will display the cup to the crowds in Broadgate at 9am. The trophy will be then taken downstairs into the hotel where it will be on display throughout the morning. The Sweet Chariot tour is in its final month of a four months journey around England which started at RAF Cosford in Shropshire in February when Back's England team-mate Mike Tindall delievered the cup by Harrier jet. During four months on the road the trophy will be displayed in shopping centres and rugby clubs and it will be seen by an estimated 2 million people. The tour has been organised by the Rugby Football Union to help maintain the high profile that rugby has enjoyed since Martin Johnson lifted the trophy in Sydney and to help attract new players, coaches, referees, administrators and spectators to the sport. The trophy will spend three days in Warwickshire where members of the public will have the opportunity to be photographed with the trophy at a number of major events. On May 2 the Webb Ellis Cup will be taken from the Hotel Leofric in a motorcade to Edgewick Park where it will be displayed at schools and youth tournament. It will then be taken to Coundon Road, home of Coventry RFC, where the annual Coventry & Mid-Warwickshire Sevens tournament is being held. Proceeds from the tournament are used to help injured rugby players. On Monday May 3 the cup will be on display at the Pump Rooms in Leamington from 9.45 to 11.45 am and will then be taken to Rugby where members of the England squad will receive the honour of freemen of the town. In the afternoon the trophy will be taken to Rugby School, where William Webb Ellis gave birth to the gam of rugby when he famously picked up and ran with a football. The trophy will be on display at the Royal & SunAlliance National Under-15 Tens tournament which is being staged at the school over the Bank Holiday weekend. On Tuesday May 4 the Webb Ellis Cup will start the day in Nuneaton at the town's museum in Riverseley Park where the trophy will be on public display from 8.45 to 11.30am. It will then be taken to Coventry where it will visit the childrens ward of one of the city's hospitals and will then be taken back to Nuneaton for a festival of schools and women's rugby at Liberty Way, home of Nuneaton RFC, from 3 to 6.15 pm. Every attempt will be made to ensure that members of the public who turn up to see the trophy are photographed with the cup but time constraints mean that individual photographs cannot be guaranteed. Other private events have been planned for Coventry, Stratford, Rugby and Nuneaton during the trophy's three-day visit to Warwickshire but there will be no photographic opportunities for members of the public at those functions. The trophy will be handed over by Warwickshire to Oxford University for the next leg of the Sweet Chariot Tour on Wednesday May 5. |
|||
With many thanks to our sponsors: |
|||
- |