Published: Thursday, 20th November, 2008 1:08pm

Flood of support for rugby initiative

by Jonathan Kelly

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ENGLAND rugby ace Toby Flood has thrown his weight behind a scheme to bring rugby to primary schools.

Premiership team London Irish is working with Keep Hatch Primary School in Ashridge Road, Wokingham, along with others in Berkshire, to boost the number of children playing the sport.

Since its launch in January 2007 the scheme has introduced more than 75,000 eight to 10-year-olds to rugby and expects to have 112,000 involved by July 2009.

Toby Flood, the Leicester Tigers and England fly-half, is backing the scheme. He said: "That number is outstanding. Rugby is a fantastic game and it's great that so many potential stars of the future will be getting involved. If only half of those carry on playing rugby that will be a great achievement and will be a huge influence on the future of the sport."

One of Irish's community coaches will be going to the school every Wednesday over the next few weeks, teaching the basics of the game and ultimately getting the children to play tag rugby.

Flood added: "It's really important that children get involved at a young age, particularly at school when they are most impressionable and can really experience the fun of taking part in sport. Not only does it provide the next generation of players but also introduces that passion of sport to provide future fans."