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We Help launch The Festival of Rugby 2015

We Help launch The Festival of Rugby 2015

Gareth Cross27 Jan 2015 - 23:11
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https://www.teddingtonrfc.co.u

The TV cameras and rugby royalty were given a warm welcome at Bushy Park to kick off the most important year in the rugby calendar

England Rugby 2015 and the Rugby Football Union (RFU) today launched to the world the ‘Festival of Rugby 2015’, a new programme enabling events across the UK to celebrate rugby’s biggest year. The TV cameras from the RFU and ITV were at Bushy Park last Sunday to record World Cup winners Jason Leonard OBE and Maggie Alphonsi MBE kicking the whole thing off. To be the club chosen to be the launchpad for this event is a real honour for the club and everyone connected with it.

Everyone from the club who was involved in the making of the video, the photographs, the interviews, or looking after Jason, Maggie and the camera crews was absolutely fantastic. Nothing was too much trouble for for you all on what was a cold damp Sunday morning. So a huge thank you to all the children from our minis, and juniors, The Ladies squad and of course our coaches, staff, volunteers and parents who all got stuck in and kept smiling.

Click here to watch the promotional video released today by the RFU

The Festival of Rugby provides clubs, schools, community groups, organisers of sporting events and the wider nation with the opportunity to take part in the celebration of rugby in 2015 and create a true festival feel across the UK. The Festival of Rugby is open to any event hosted between June 10 and October 31 2015 that includes a rugby theme or element; this can be as simple as a link to a rugby team, song, through catering, visuals or cultural elements of the game.

From bake sales to national sporting events, everyone across the country is invited to join in by registering their existing event or creating an event to be part of the programme. The new dedicated website www.festivalofrugby2015.com will also allow people to locate and attend events in their area with a postcode search feature launching later this year.

England Rugby 2015 Chief Executive, Debbie Jevans, said, “The Festival of Rugby 2015 aims to create a true festival feeling across the UK by offering the opportunity for national, local, community and individual events to be part of rugby’s biggest year. Events hosted across the UK between June 10 - October 31 2015 can be part of the Festival of Rugby, simply by registering through www.festivalofrugby2015.com. It’s completely free and gives organisers access to promotional support and the Festival of Rugby brand and creates opportunities for people across the country to get involved and locate local events in their area and join in.”

A number of events have already registered their interest in the Festival of Rugby 2015, including the World Wheelchair Rugby Challenge at the Copper Box Arena at the Olympic Park, the massed performance of ‘The Armed Man’ run by the Voices for Hospices Choir in Kempton Park, and Wallingford RFC ‘Rugfest 2015’. These highlight the broad range and genre of events that will feature in the programme, in line with the Festival’s aim to spread the celebration of rugby far and wide in 2015. Teddington RFC will of course be putting on some Festival of Rugby events in the 100 days leading up to the start of The World Cup and also during the tournament and beyond.

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