Rugby World Cup fever comes to Bognor

With this responsibility they will inspire young people to play rugby as they promote the World Cup in schools and the local community.

One major role is to produce rugby ambassadors, who will use their excellent leadership and communication skills to inform and excite peers about rugby and the World Cup through events, assemblies and competitions.

With school games organiser Sean O’Connor and Matt Sealby, rugby lead PE teacher at The Regis School, the ambassadors ran their first event.

Bognor RFC hosted the event which saw four secondary schools compete in a Year 9 tournament and nine primary schools take part in a Year 3/4 tag rugby festival.

There was an opening ceremony with speechess, the World In Union rugby anthem and flag-waving. Each school was allocated a country and could have their facxes painted with their country’s flag.

The secondary tournament was a high-quality show of Year 9 rugby. The primary-school children learnt skills through various fun rugby drills led by Regis School sports leaders.

It came to a close with a presentation from the ambassadors, awarding a primary team with the TREDS award. This is the rugby code of conduct: teamwork, respect, enjoyment, discipline and sportsmanship.

There were more than 200 young people at the event. SGO O’Connor said: “It was fantastic to see so many young people smiling and engaged in rugby, hopefully they will continue it and enjoy the World Cup.”

Participating schools were Felpham Community College, Orminston Six Village Academy, St Philip Howard, The Regis School from the secondary sector and Bishop Tufnell, Downview, Nyewood, Rose Green, South Bersted, Walberton and Binsted Westbourne, West Dean and West Wittering primary schools.