ENGLAND’S rugby captain passed on her winning knowledge at a conference designed to develop school pupils’ leadership skills.

England Women’s rugby captain Tamara Taylor was the special guest at The Future Leaders conference, organised and run by the Student Sport Management Team (SSMT), which is made up of young people studying at Darlington’s Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College (QE).

Year Ten pupils from five of the QE’s partner schools attended the conference on Wednesday (September 30) as the first step in setting up their own in school sports activity, which will then be supported by a member of the SSMT.

Ms Taylor, who plays for Darlington’s Mowden Park rugby side, was a prominent member of the England team who lifted the world cup trophy last year and took on the captaincy for this year’s Six Nations championship.

She said it was massively important to inspire young people to take up sport.

“Hopefully they will go back into their schools and be inspired by the activities here today.”

Ms Taylor added that the Rugby World Cup and New Zealand All Black’s stay in the North-East next week was a great opportunity to inspire interest in the sport amongst young people locally.

At yesterday’s event pupils also took part in Durham FA workshop on setting up an inter-school football league, an AoC Sport (Association of Colleges) workshop on how schools can get more girls doing activities, sessions with chiropractor Anna Papadopoulou and a media training workshop with local firm French and Lamming Media.