Lord Addington
Main Page: Lord Addington (Liberal Democrat - Excepted Hereditary)(8 years, 8 months ago)
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Baroness Neville-Rolfe
My Lords, the Rugby Football Union is well on its way to meeting that target by 2017. It has 960 new links between clubs, schools and colleges in its targeted work. In addition, it has 104 women and girls’ club sections with a new school/college link. The RFU is taking the game into state schools, reaching 130,000 state school pupils in the past school year. I do not know whether noble Lords have seen today’s Financial Times, which describes the Rugby World Cup as:
“A tonic for rugby’s grassroots”,
and highlights the extra £15 million likely to become available for grass-roots rugby.
Lord Addington (LD)
My Lords, will the Minister give some thought to those at the other end of the grass-roots spectrum—that is, the veterans? Is she aware that a veterans’ tournament for parliamentarians who are involved in the Rugby World Cup is taking place next week, starting in Rugby? If any care to come down to watch, we are also playing at the Richmond athletics ground on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Baroness Neville-Rolfe
The parliamentary rugby match is an excellent example of grass-roots rugby, demonstrating over the past 20 years that rugby can be enjoyed by people of all ages. I understand that the noble Lord has regularly distinguished himself in those matches, and I wish him and the team well—and every success for England as well.