Year in Review: Get Into Rugby hits one million mark

Of all the 2,000 different locations where World Rugby’s Get Into Rugby (GIR) programme was rolled out to in 2015 the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk could lay claim to being the coldest.

The sight of thousands of youngsters running around with ball in hand earlier this year was certainly one to warm the hearts on a day when temperatures hovered around the -21 degrees mark.

World Rugby’s Get Into Rugby programme has snow-balled from there, touching the lives of more than one million children over the course of the last 12 months. Encouragingly just over a third of participants have been girls. 

Launched in 2012 with a four-year plan to increase player participation at grassroots level in the lead-up to the Olympic Games in Rio, Get Into Rugby assists its 154 member unions, of which 129 were active in 2015, in developing the game in a progressive and sustainable way.

It provides clubs, coaches and teachers with the resources to introduce children to the game and its values and encourage a lifelong relationship with rugby, and nearly 21,000 trained personnel have delivered rugby sessions in schools and clubs and organised festivals, tournaments and leagues. 

Big in Brazil

As the largest of World Rugby’s regional associations, Rugby Europe accounted for 290,000 of the total participants. But Sudamérica Rugby were not far behind in the numbers stakes, attracting an uptake of just over a quarter of a million children.

The 2016 Olympic Games host nation Brazil has the highest level of engagement (105,000) worldwide, while Colombia are ranked fourth with around half the number of participants as their regional neighbours. In Colombia players from the national team, Los Tucanes, act as Get Into Rugby development officers and role models to the children they teach.

“For me, taking part in the programme is very important as it allows me to help grow rugby in my country and prepare to be a better coach,” said Colombia’s national captain Sebastian Mejia.

“Being captain of the ‘Tucans’, I have responsibilities on and off the field, because many children and young people have their eyes on me. So I try to support rugby as much as I can.”

The joy of playing rugby provides a welcome outlet from the everyday violence that afflicts countries like Colombia. Similarly, elements of the GIR programme have been used by the Philippines Rugby Union to help reintegrate drug-abusing street kids back into mainstream society.

Oceans apart, but together as one

In the Oceania region Get Into Rugby complements the Pacific in Union Programme, which is a partnership between Oceania Rugby, the Australian Rugby Union and the Australian Government and is aimed at improving the lives of Pacific Island communities through rugby. Running side by side, the programmes have massively increased player participation amongst girls, with the take up around the 20,000 mark in each of the programmes.

Rugby Africa launched a ground-breaking young referee initiative in June, on the eve of the first Africa Cup Division 1A match between Tunisia and Namibia in Tunis. ‘I also play referee’ gives children the opportunity to take charge of matches involving players younger than themselves.

“We feel this is a good tool in promoting on-field respect, one of the main pillars of rugby’s core values, and by getting a better understanding of the rules we are convinced the children will become better players,” said Jean-Luc Barthes, World Rugby’s Rugby Services Manager for Africa.

A whistle-stop tour of Get Into Rugby’s activities wouldn’t be complete without mention of ‘Angles International’, the boy’s under-16 side from Faisalabad in eastern Pakistan who took part in the world-famous Rosslyn Park Schools Sevens in March – a breeding ground for future stars of the game – only a few months after first taking up the sport.