3 Mar, 16:36
Northampton Saints' rising young star Stephen Myler joined 140 primary school pupils in a special tag rugby training session in Coventry yesterday, in the countdown to the EDF Energy Cup semi-finals.
Staff
Every Guinness Premiership club well as Cornish Pirates and Exeter Chiefs are taking rugby to hundreds across country through EDF Energy National Schools Rugby Programme, one of the most comprehensive schools programmes in world rugby.
Community coaches work with primary school teachers and children - boys and girls aged 8-10, and EDF Energy make sure schools have the right equipment to go on and play the game for years to come.
They learn tag rugby, a non-contact version of the sport that teaches the skills to go on and play rugby union. Twenty schools even have the chance to play tag rugby at the EDF Energy Cup semi-finals and the final, which is staged at Twickenham.
The programme has been supported by further funding of £198,262 over the past two years from Sport England, through the National Sports Foundation. The foundation is a government-led initiative set up in 2006 to help secure new and additional private investment into community sport.
