RUGBY chiefs have been in Darlington to witness the success of a programme to get all non-rugby-playing state secondary schools involved in the game by 2019.

Darlington Rugby Club at Blackwell Meadows hosted the CBRE All Schools Rugby festival at the same time the club received its second RFU Club Accreditation Award.

The CBRE All Schools Programme aims to get 750 non-rugby-playing state secondary schools playing the game by the time of the next Rugby world Cup in Japan in 2019.

The programme partners schools with a local rugby club who can then provide support and assistance with getting school children and students playing the game.

Longfield Academy, Hummersknott Academy and Darlington School of Maths and Science are the first in Darlington to benefit from the development scheme at Darlington Rugby Club.

They played a mini-festival in front of RFU chief executive Ian Ritchie, and rugby development director Steve Grainger, who were visiting the North-East to meet with businesses and educators to facilitate the sport’s growth in the region.

John Clegg, a PE teacher at Longfield School, described the impact that joining the programme has had on sport in the school

He said: “It has been absolutely fantastic, since the programme started we have increased the team by 50 per cent and the new team is made up of children who didn’t previously participate in sport.”

Head of PE and performing arts at Hummersknott, Stewart Souter agreed.

“We have seen definite improvements having the rugby coaching in school, especially the technical input,” he said.

“For the first time, we have 13 girls to make up a new team, it is brilliant.”

With an added boost from the recent England Women’s Rugby World Cup success, girls’ school teams across England have seen an increase in numbers from 26 to 99 teams over the last two years.

Matt Bryan, rugby development officer for Durham, rounded off the rugby festival by thanking the children, staff and coaches at the club for embracing the All Schools Programme so wholeheartedly in its first year and praising its success.