TOUCHLINE EDUCATION January 2015 U18 SCHOOLS CHAMPIONS TROPHY SUCCESS The U18 Schools Champions Trophy, involving 32 top rugby playing schools and particularly serving those who play one term only, saw excitement and success in its inaugural season. Schools who don’t normally meet on their circuit tested themselves against new opposition. Some great matches included: Millfield v Tonbridge; Oakham v Epsom College and the Grammar School at Leeds v RGS Guildford. A very fine Millfield School team took the final honours, beating a well– drilled Grammar School at Leeds 31–24 in a thrilling finale at Allianz Park. Said Millfield captain Bailey Ransom: “Credit to Leeds, they showed the talent that got them to the final. I just can’t put into words what this means to us, the emotions are running high.” Grammar School at Leeds Head of Rugby John MacKenzie added: “Millfield were the quality side we thought they’d be and the better side over the 70 minutes. But we weren’t a million miles away, and we’ll take heart from that.” Plans for next season continue. If you want to discover more about eligibility contact: [email protected] FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS FOR FREE British Universities and College Sport TAG TO TWICKENHAM are offering all schools the chance to apply for free tickets to Twickenham STEPHANIE GILES Stadium on the 27th March 2015. Tag 2 Twickenham has given more than 40,000 Primary School children the Top teams at the National Festival were St Lawrence To apply please contact greg.sturge@ chance to play tag rugby in local festivals, through to the National Festival at Primary School, Shropshire, and Balfour School, Brighton, who bucs.org.uk Rugby School, the finalists playing before a Twickenham Test match. played in the QBE International England v Australia curtain raiser and formed the guard of honour as the players ran out. Congratulations came also for Batt C of E Primary School, Oxford, for earning the most core values points in the National Festival, consistently demonstrating teamwork, respect, enjoyment, discipline and sportsmanship. Both finalist schools are previous winners, St Lawrence in 2010 and Balfour in 2013. Maybe some of them could be playing for England one day! TOUCHLINE EDUCATION – JANUARY 2015 NATWEST SCHOOLS CROSS ACTION HOTS UP CURRICULAR As 2015 dawns, competition is intense in the NatWest Schools U18 Semi finals for the U18s and U15 Cup and Vase. Cup and Vase will take RESOURCES Entries having remained at record place on Saturday 7 March levels, with a number of new schools at Allianz Park and for the England Rugby, in partnership with the Youth Sport Trust joining those who traditionally U15s Cup and Vase the and a group of dedicated school teachers, launched compete, and there have been some following Saturday 14th www.englandrugbyteachersresource.com earlier this year. impressive matches. At the time of March, at the same venue. The site is packed with cross curricular teaching resources writing, Dulwich College were still These will be stellar events to help teachers to bring rugby and the Rugby World Cup in contention at both U15 and U18 in advance of the big finals to life in the classroom. The site is FREE to use and can be Cup levels. day at Twickenham on accessed via PC, tablet or smartphone. Wednesday 25th March. Work is underway to add primary school literacy, numeracy Entry is free – bring your and PE resources, as well as developing some great new teams to watch the best rugby themed English, Maths and Science secondary school schoolboy rugby of the teaching ideas. This is being carried out by Andy Naslas season. No tickets required. (Joseph Whittaker School), Tom Williams (Redcar Academy) Gates open at 10.30am. and Martin Cooper (The Manor Academy). Nigel Orton CHAIRMAN’S MESSAGE In my first term as Executive Chairman of England Rugby Football Schools’ Union, it has been a privilege to head up a forward looking team on our committee, with an exciting plan underway to develop schools’ age grade rugby. We were honoured to have HRH Prince Harry actively support our England Rugby All Schools programme and enthusiastically joining in with play at Eccles during a festival for 12 participating schools. Great growth in girls’ rugby, including in schools, followed England Women’s World Cup win and we are hoping that Rugby World Cup 2015 will stimulate even more interest in young people to try the sport and join the rugby family. Many of our schools turn out large numbers of teams each Saturday to play block fixtures and the skill displayed is generally of a very high order. We must thank the professional teachers who do SCHOOL RUGBY AMBASSADORS such a fine job coaching and refereeing, making it fun while also through rugby delivering wider educational aims, social skills, and sportsmanship. TAKE CHARGE Around the country teachers, Community Rugby Coaches and Rugby Development Officers are working together to introduce rugby to young people in schools and clubs. They are producing the GEORGE COOPER next generation of adult club players, and it’s vital we keep these players post 16, when many new School Rugby Ambassadors at Shenley Brook End School ran a One Year to Go tag festival for local interests start to compete. primary school students. Asked to help run the event for children aged 10 to 11, what we didn’t know Increasingly schools and clubs are becoming linked, sharing resources. We in England Rugby was that we would be organising the whole tournament! Schools are working in partnership with colleagues in colleges and universities, both in CBs and In the style of ‘The Apprentice’, we had our very own boardroom, used to plan and organise nationally, to provide an ‘education voice’ and a playing continuity for young people. the festival. With guidance from RFU coach Bob Hardman, and Richard Williams from the Sport A highlight of this term was being at Saracens’ Allianz Park for the well–staged final of our Education team at the MK Dons, it was up to us as School Rugby Ambassadors to decide on every inaugural U18 Champions Trophy. The match between The Grammar School at Leeds and Millfield detail, from the warm up, to the teams, as well as the format and the prizes of offer. School was a really great exhibition of talent. The game was streamed, with 10,000 views. We thank We learned the rules of tag rugby, uncovering every aspect to referee the games. Certificates were the RFU staff who worked hard with us to create this successful new venture on behalf of ERFSU. prepared, a ‘round robin’ tournament table for the six teams made each team was assigned a country Meanwhile, the NatWest U15 and U18 competitions will reach exciting final rounds in the New Year and a coach. Medals were picked up and our timing structured precisely to ensure players would so put Twickenham Schools’ Day on March 25th in your new diary! never have a dull moment. Tries, sweat and teamwork followed, as our School Rugby Ambassadors refereed, coached and delivered an excellent tag event for primary schools from around Milton Keynes. We encouraged the students to follow the TREDS core values and I am proud to say I believe we achieved this. In our ‘Apprentice’ themed task, nobody heard the dreaded “You’re fired” but a rousing “You’re hired” as we encouraged young students to take up rugby and spread the word of the Rugby World Cup. To find out how your school can get involved in the School Rugby Ambassadors programme go to the Rugby World Cup 2015 section on www.youthsporttrust.org DEVELOPING FOR FREE The ERFSU and RFU will be hosting Teacher Development Forums again this summer. Attendance at the workshops is free but places are limited so early book early to avoid disappointment. The programme will be distributed shortly, with six workshops planned for June across the country. To discover more about locations near to you contact: [email protected] LV=YOUNG REPORTER COMPETITION LV= are looking for the next generation of rugby writers, the competition invites children under the age of 16 to submit a 200 word review of any LV= pool game with a winner selected per round. A panel will then review the four finalist reports and select one overall winner. Prizes included a REDCAR ACADEMY NATWEST LV= goodie bag, a chance to take part in an England v Italy press conference and to work on the Daily Telegraph sports desk for a day. For more information please visit https://atheart.lv.com/ FUTURE STARS sport/lv-young-reporter-competition Redcar Academy had never played rugby before joining the All Schools programme in September 2013 but, having entered the NatWest Schools Cup this season, they have now trained with England star players. PARTY ON Head of PE and the school’s rugby coach Thomas Williams discovered the NatWest Future Stars competition, run in partnership with England Rugby, and sent off an application. The school’s Year 10 teams, boys and girls, toured Twickenham Stadium, before their training session with Jonny May, DOWN! David Wilson and Matt Mullan at the Lensbury Hotel, where a question and answer session followed If you have tickets for RBS 6 Nations and a meal replicating what the England players eat in camp. England v France on 21st March 2015 England forward Wilson said: “It certainly brought back memories of my days playing in the at Twickenham, please join us for a competition. Taking part in a tournament as big as the NatWest Schools Cup provides a great drink and a bite to eat in the West Fan platform for youngsters to enjoy competitive rugby and even make the step up to the next level.” Village.