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There has been a healthy increase in the number of youngsters


regularly playing rugby in England over the past 10 years


of schools offering rugby. As part of the campaign, more than 1m young people were offered opportunities to play, with the sport being introduced to 400 non-rugby playing secondary schools between 2012 and 2015. RFU has also created a range of partnerships with commercial operators and other non-rugby entities, which have played a significant role in spreading rugby to communities. One of these has been a campaign to introduce touch rugby – a “softer” form of the game in which players do not tackle each other in a physical way – in partnership with mobile communications giant O2. Since 2012, RFU has set up more than 200 club- and 100 university-based O2 Touch Centres, which offer a range of pitch up and play activities and organised competitions.


HISTORY OF RUGBY UNION


The two codes of rugby - rugby league and union – were born out of a dis- agreement in the 1890s over whether players should be paid for missing work to play rugby. The clubs in favour of giving workers full compensation for wages lost due to missing work for match commitments, all in the north of England, formed the Northern Rugby Football Union (NRFU) in 1895. The move eventually led to the NRFU clubs severing their ties with the London-based Rugby Football Union (RFU), which was determined to run rugby as an amateur sport.


sportsmanagement.co.uk issue 2 2015 © Cybertrek 2015


FACILITIES For players and members to enjoy a quality experience and stay involved with rugby, clubs need modern facilities that appeal to those in the communities around them. RFU has been helping clubs to create better facilities, pledging an investment of £10m from 2013 to 2017 to provide modern day environments. This follows on from the setting up of


the Rugby Football Foundation (RFF) in 2003. In the past decade, RFF has invested £16.7m in developing community rugby clubs. More than 240 projects have received interest-free loans worth in excess of £11.6m while around 1,000 Groundmatch grants have been made with a value of more than £5m. In all, the awards have stimulated investment in


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