Leicestershire girls pitch up and play
After a great week celebrating women in sport, Loughborough RFC hosted an afternoon of rugby with girls from across the county for ‘Pitch up and Play’ on Sunday 9th October.
Around 100 hundred girls aged 12-18 attended the event organised by Tom Kilburn, Women and Girls head coach for Leicestershire. Tom was delighted with the number of girls who demonstrated their enthusiasm for the game. “ It’s great to see all these girls teaming up with others from across the county and showing some promising skills”.
The Leicestershire Rugby Union are keen to increase the number of girls playing the game of rugby in the county and supporting events such as this. A number of clubs are embracing the addition of girls and women to their clubs with representatives from Coalville, Lutterworth, Leicester Forest East, Market Harborough, Leicester Lions, Loughborough and Oakham all taking part. Lily Keay, aged 12 from Lutterworth RFC said “ I enjoyed playing mixed teams with other clubs the best. Everyone played as a team and wanted to win as a team”. Teamwork is one of the RFU’s core values, along with respect, enjoyment, discipline and sportsmanship, all of which were clearly visible in the games played today and fantastic to see children taking on board.
Women’s rugby has already seen a swell in numbers following England women’s win in the Women’s Rugby World Cup in 2014 and the England women narrowly missing out on a bronze medal against Canada during the Olympics Rugby 7’s. The RFU have this week launched their Red Roses campaign to identify women in rugby and develop a pathway for the international game and are looking to see an additional 10,000 women and girls start playing contact rugby.
The next Pitch up and Play will be held on Sunday 27th November at Market Harborough RFC. For further details for how to get involved, please contact Tom Kilburn, Leicestershire Head Coach for Women and Girls at tomkilburn@hotmail.com.
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