Cambridgeshire club hope Rugby World Cup solves key issue
Ely Tigers field teams at both junior and senior level
A grassroots rugby club in Cambridgeshire is hoping this year’s World Cup will bring benefits on the pitch while teaching those off it.
Rugby union’s showpiece tournament kicks off this Friday when hosts France play New Zealand, before 2019 finalists England get their campaign started against Argentina on Saturday.
Alex Skingley is the director of rugby at Ely Tigers, which has both a youth and senior setup.
"It'll bring our club a sense of togetherness"
“It will bring our club probably every other club around the world watching a sense of togetherness and family, and hopefully inspire us to go forward,” he said.
“I think the main benefits would be a free-flowing game, attractive, exciting, hopefully to inspire new and old players to come back to the beautiful game we have that is rugby.”
A report by UK Sport published earlier this year found almost 3 in 4 people said watching or attending major sporting events positively affects their happiness.
World Cup aims to address key challenge in grassroots game
That’s on top of £64 million being invested in England by the government alongside the Football Foundation, the Premier League and the FA to help build and upgrade 1,600 grassroots sports sites this year.
But while Alex wants to see more people play rugby during and after the World Cup, he believes some challenges do still exist.
“I think the main challenge in grassroots rugby at the moment is what people feel about the safety of the game,” he said.
“It’s down to good coaching, a willingness to learn and correct techniques that will hopefully take our game forward.
“Players who haven’t probably played since school, who never thought they could probably play again; children watching with their families hopefully will inspire them to think ‘I could play that game’.”