The video, entitled Let us Play underpins the WRU rugby department’s philosophy – to engage, transfer and retain players, coaches and referees.
The video features players from all elements of the game, from grassroots to international rugby. Sam Warburton, Dan Biggar, Alun Wyn Jones and Wales Women captain Rachel Taylor are amongst those ambassadors, who, alongside young people and community rugby players, explain how they fell in love with the game, any negative aspects and how they would like to improve those areas.
In the video, Wales captain Sam Warburton says, “I love the relationships I developed as an eight year old scoring my first try for Rhiwbina Rugby and I’ve been in love with the game ever since.
Wales Women captain Rachel Taylor believes rugby’s team ethos was a key factor for her. “You play with your friends who become your family and it’s great to have your friends and family behind you in rugby”, while Alun Wyn Jones adds, “it’s not about scoring tries, winning and losing, it’s about the happiness children are going to have.”
The children and grassroots players in the video go on to insist they just want to play rugby, without any negative banter from the side lines, hence the title ‘Let us Play’.
WRU National Development Manager Jason Lewis said, “’Let us Play’ is a commitment to all our participants – players, coaches, referees, volunteers, parents – that we will uphold the values and culture of the game that make is so unique. Some of these values – friendship, respect, a sense of belonging – come out strongly in this video which is a promise by us to ensure everyone has a high quality, positive experience when they come into a club or join a team.
“While the video addresses an important issue of ensuring touch line behaviour is positive for the well-being of our developing young players, coaches and referees, it does much more than just that.
“We want to ensure there is ample opportunity for players to train and play within our clubs, ensure excellent coaching behaviours and practices, focus on the development of young people over winning at all costs, create a good awareness of the impact of pitch side behaviour on young players and referees especially and ensure good discipline on the field.
“Through coach and referee education courses, school club hub officer training, safeguarding workshops and rugby co-ordinator professional development, the messages contained in the short film will be reinforced at every level, underpinning our philosophy to engage more people in rugby, often within schools initially, transfer them to the club environment and retain their involvement within the game.”
WRU Head of Rugby Josh Lewsey said: “We feel rugby union defines Wales and unites our communities, and it is our duty to deliver excellence but also to develop good people. The culture of rugby union is one of its key unique selling points and while we must adapt our game and its forms to cater for a modern society, we must work hard to retain the values it represents, while enabling every player to reach their potential on the field.”
Wales attack coach Rob Howley added, “The environment we create for players is key at every level, enabling players to reach their potential which in turn improves the performance of the team. Coaches have a major role to play in creating that optimum environment and anything that can be done to help and support all our coaches, from grassroots to elite, is a positive step.”
