A SCHEME that takes rugby into schools in north-west Durham is to be the pilot for a national programme.

The Government is launching the Club School initiative to regenerate sport in schools by sending in coaches from sports clubs.

A scheme devised seven years ago by officials at Consett Rugby Union Club has proved such a success in Derwentside that Westminster wants to use it as a pilot for the national project.

Consett club chairman John O'Connor designed the scheme with club member Barry Cook, a PE teacher at Blackfyne School, Consett.

Mr O'Connor said: "It is very satisfying to think that something we concocted between the two of us in five minutes has withstood the test of time."

North-West Durham MP Hilary Armstrong highlighted the scheme to Department of Culture, Media and Sport Secretary Tessa Jowell, who invited Mr O'Connor and a delegation to Downing Street.

He said: "A lot of initiatives and plans are handed down to PE teachers who have had no input in it and it just doesn't work. We turned that around.

"The best ideas are the most simple. Barry has 25 years' experience and designed it from a PE perspective.

"Not surprisingly, when we took it into the six secondary schools in Derwentside, they said it was marvellous.

"It was designed for schools by a serving PE teacher who knew exactly what the requirements were, what was practical and understood the timetable."

Consett rugby club has already been nationally recognised. In 2001, it was named the Central Council for Physical Recreation's Club of the Year, and won Volunteer Investment Programme Club of the Year in 1999.

Mr O'Connor said: "We have won awards and been recognised for this work in the past. But these days it takes a while to filter all the way up."