Gloucester Rugby will be running Try Rugby, a new initiative to introduce young children in the area to rugby. We are doing this with our partners Wooden Spoon and Sport England through the National Sports Foundation.

One of the things we are hoping to do, as well as getting more young people to play the game, is help tackle the growing issue of childhood obesity. Today nearly a third (31.1 per cent) of 11-year-olds1 are now overweight or obese and the statistic is rising. Exercise is a great way of dealing with this and rugby is the perfect sport to do it - all shapes and sizes have their place in rugby – Rory Lawson and Marco Bortolami.

Children in Gloucester are just some of the 23,000 children throughout England who will benefit from the initiative. Mike Tindall is a huge supporter of Try Rugby and he said: ‘In any rugby team you will see a vast difference in the heights, weights and overall sizes of players. Just look at the Gloucester squad; Marco Bortolami and Will James are both about 6’6” and 18 stone, James Simpson-Daniel is 6”ft and 14 stone and Rory Lawson is 5’8” ft and weighs 13 stone.

'They are all fit and very health conscious but there is nearly a foot difference in their heights and 4 to 5 stone difference in their weights! Consequently rugby is the ideal vehicle to engage and motivate youngsters – they don’t need to feel self-conscious about their size as rugby needs every shape and size in a team. What’s more, playing rugby can engender a great many positive values such as respect, team work and having fun while exercising.’

Wooden Spoon along with Sport England through the National Sports Foundation have each contributed £130,000 to Try Rugby; the scheme will, see all 12 Premiership Clubs including Leeds Carnegie, offering 23,000 pupils aged 8-10 across England the chance to try out rugby, many of whom will be trying rugby for the first time.

Paul Rudland Community Development Officer said, ‘Try Rugby gives local schools a course in tag rugby that will benefit children and teachers and will enable rugby to still be played long after we have completed the coaching series, tag rugby is a pretty straightforward sport and it is lots of fun. Recent research has shown that rugby players are seen as very positive role models which we hope will also inspire the participating children.'

Try Rugby kicks off in October all thanks to Sport England, Premier Rugby and Spoon.
(1 Dept of Health 2006)