EDF Energy Cup - : Extra investment energises community programme

Thomas Godfrey (r), Commercial Director for Sport England presents a cheque for £99,131 to Louise Poole (c), Sponsorship Director of EDF Energy and Wayne Morris, Community Manager for Premier Rugby (l).

Extra investment energises community programme

1 May 2008, 4:55 pm

By Staff

Seventy thousand more children will be playing rugby by the end of the school year thanks to the EDF Energy National Schools Rugby Programme.

Every Guinness Premiership side along with the Cornish Pirates and Exeter Chiefs from National League One are working with schools to bring rugby to new audiences and inspire youngsters to learn to play the game.

“It’s incredible” says Louise Poole, EDF Energy’s Director of Sponsorship. “By July, 70,000 children will have received top level coaching from professional clubs in just a year and a half. We know that their schools have now got the equipment and desire to establish rugby as part of their everyday sporting activity. For rugby in England, that’s a great achievement, because it means potentially 70,000 more fans and players of the game, from school and local club sides, through to children going on to forge a career in the sport.”

Wayne Morris, Community Manager at Premier Rugby added, “The programme has been a great success and on behalf of the Guinness Premiership clubs and all the participating schools and children I would like to thank the support of both EDF Energy and the National Sports Foundation for making this fantastic programme possible”

By July 2009, 112,000 boys and girls aged 8 – 10, will have had six weeks of professional coaching from top club sides.

The programme has been supported by funding of £198,262 over the past two years from Sport England through the National Sports Foundation. The NSF is a government-led initiative set up in 2006 to leverage new and additional private investment into Community Sport.