Nice Touch with Love Island’s Kai
Love Island’s latest winner, Kai Fagan, joined some of the 1,200 pupils involved in the Touch to Twickenham campaign which has been encouraging more schools to play and enjoy touch rugby.
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A keen rugby player and teacher, Kai was back playing rugby four days after winning the popular TV reality show and, keen to make sure young people get to enjoy the sport, he went along to coach touch at Lakelands Academy.
“Touch rugby is great in schools because teachers find it easy to set up, you can have more and less athletic pupils playing the same sport and it can really up engagement,” said Kai.
At Lakelands Academy, the young people had great fun being coached by a celebrity who knows his rugby. “It has been really good, the teamwork and learning to communicate with each other more,” said one girl. One of the boys agreed. “It’s been great, and I never thought it would be happening here at our school!”
Teacher, Deborah Campbell was delighted by the visit and the opportunities offered by the game. She said: “We can play touch anywhere and our students have really taken to it and really enjoyed getting involved. It’s been brilliant for them to have someone in the spotlight here with them, someone they can look up to.”
Finals Day at Sixways
Running throughout April and May, teams from over 200 schools from across the country took part and enjoyed 12 regional tournaments. The winners from each will compete at a fantastic finals day on the 22 June, at Sixways Stadium in Worcester. So good was the session with Kai that Lakelands Academy will be one of the teams competing. The winning team on the finals day will be invited to Twickenham for a Six Nations fixture to support the England team.
Created to encourage new players, or those who don’t regularly play at school or club, the regional tournaments involved 55% who were new to rugby, and 40% female players.
The tournaments were also an opportunity for 36 young leaders and university students to develop their skills through a variety of different roles, including refereeing matches, being pitch managers, time keeping and scoring.
Georgina Roylance-Smith, a Year 12 student from St Bedes Catholic College really enjoyed refereeing the touch games. She said: “I was a bit worried at the start, but as it was touch it was easy to do and my confidence grew throughout. It really was easier that I thought, and I’d encourage others to give it a go!”
