Bath Rugby Foundation’s Project Rugby programme had a hugely successful Term 2 of the academic year with 527 boys and girls given an introduction to the sport. 

After working with youngsters in schools they were invited to local “hubs”. These Project Rugby Hubs saw 180 participants show up and 48 participants have now transitioned to join a rugby club. In Term 2 Project Rugby worked with 20 groups from schools across Wiltshire.  

Project Rugby is a joint initiative between Premiership Rugby and England Rugby and aims to increase participation in the game by people from traditionally under-represented groups.

To celebrate the successful term, a rugby festival was held at The Rec for all the schools our coaches worked with over a six-week period.

A key aim of Project Rugby is to provide a route from starting rugby with a first session with our coaches in schools all the way to joining a rugby club.

During term 2 we introduced 46 new girls to Bath Ladies and 32 new boys and girls to Trowbridge RFC.

Bath Rugby gifted Bath Rugby Foundation a total of 250 tickets to Bath Rugby vs Clermont, which the Foundation used to enhance the Project Rugby participants’ first experiences with the sport, offering tickets as rewards for hard work and progression.

On November 30 we invited 15 Project Rugby female participants to attend a training session before Bath United played Saracens Storm. For most of them it was the first session outside of school they had attended. We put on food for them after the training session and watched the first half of the game before getting ready to play on Rec at half time. During this we also gave another participant the opportunity to ref the game at half time, allowing him to take part in what he enjoys the most.

Project Rugby held a fixture night at Trowbridge RFC where participants came together to play a game of touch rugby with Bath Rugby’s Ross Batty. After the fixture the participants came together to experience the social side of by all sitting together enjoying food in the clubhouse.

The Project Rugby festival saw 68 participants from John of Gaunt, Somer Valley, Haysfield, Clarendon and St Laurence schools. During the festival participants engaged in skill stations where they showed off their passing, kicking and tackling. This was then all put together in a rugby festival where schools played a minimum of four fixtures.

Learn more about Project Rugby