Rugby World Cup 2015

Lord St John of Bletso Excerpts

Thursday 10th September 2015 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Lord St John of Bletso]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to maximise the grass-roots impact of hosting the forthcoming Rugby World Cup.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and Department for Culture, Media and Sport (Baroness Neville-Rolfe) (Con)]

My Lords, the Government are working closely with the Rugby Football Union to ensure a lasting legacy from the Rugby World Cup. It is working to spread the game’s popularity—notably, by improving clubs’ capacity and by offering more young people the opportunity to play rugby, especially in state schools.

[Lord St John of Bletso (CB)]

My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Baroness for her reply. Many of us are very much looking forward to the forthcoming Rugby World Cup, which will be the first major international sporting event in England since the Olympic Games. Is the Minister aware that way back in January 2012, before the Olympic Games, the then Minister for Culture, Media and Sport declared that the Government would promote at least 1,300 partnerships between schools and rugby clubs, making it easier for young people to play sport after their education? Can she elaborate on what has been done with those initiatives?

[Baroness Neville-Rolfe]

My Lords, the Rugby Football Union is well on its way to meeting that target by 2017. It has 960 new links between clubs, schools and colleges in its targeted work. In addition, it has 104 women and girls’ club sections with a new school/college link. The RFU is taking the game into state schools, reaching 130,000 state school pupils in the past school year. I do not know whether noble Lords have seen today’s Financial Times, which describes the Rugby World Cup as:

“A tonic for rugby’s grassroots”,

and highlights the extra £15 million likely to become available for grass-roots rugby.