Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Girls rugby partnership up and running in Welwyn-Hatfield

Welwyn Warriors week just got better! After winning through to the quarter finals of the National Cup, the club has been awarded £1,000 by The Herts Sports Partnership to help the club with its Club/School links programme.

Team Manager Dave Marques was absolutely delighted. ‘This is fantastic news! It means we can really get our Girls Rugby Development programme going. Welwyn Warriors is the most successful team in the County and we intend to make it even better! We couldn’t have achieved this without the help of so many people. Jo Higson Welwyn-Hatfield’s Sports Partnership Manager & Colin Smyth, Sports Development officer from Welwyn-Hatfield Council and Amanda Bate & Pete Engledow from the RFU, they have given us so much help & support, we couldn’t have done it without them! On top of that Gary Peterkin and everyone at Welwyn Rugby club who work so hard to ensure the girls success. When I met with Matt Eames from HSP he is just as enthusiastic as we are!’

The money will be spent providing rugby coaching to girls in years 5 & 6 and 9 & 10. These age groups are the clubs ‘Key targets’ as the WRFU has a scheme in place for years 7 & 8 and Saracens are running a community coaching programme across Welwyn-Hatfield as well, so girls rugby is really getting a huge boost! Some of the money will be spent on extra equipment which will also be a massive help to the girls group. Assistant Team manager Pete McCullough felt it is a vindication of the hard work Welwyn has put in over the last few months. ‘Our U14 girls are the cornerstone of the County team as are the U17 girls. We have 8 U14s and 9 U17 girls going for regional trials in January as well as girls in the England talent development group. This is the club to be at now, it will be even more so after this great funding. Thank you HSP!’! Our partner schools are so fired up for working with us on this, we’re certain we’ll be the biggest & most successful club in the region by 2009 but this isn’t just a ‘one off’ scheme, we intend to keep the school links going on a permanent basis’.

Fullerians is running a similar scheme in SW Herts so across the County girls rugby is getting a higher profile. The WRFU is really driving the game forward and other sports should look to the RFU model for how to take Sport forward in Hertfordshire. Welwyn Warriors is actively seeking new girls to join them and get into rugby so any girls from yr 5 upwards, interested in joining Warriors, pls ring Dave on 0786 676 5411.

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