More young players sign up to rugby clubs
Just over a month after the start of the new season, more than 133,000 young players had affiliated to rugby clubs nationwide, almost 36,000 more affiliations than at the same time last year.
The RFU has been giving parents and carers ownership of their children’s data and encouraging affiliation so that players have their own record throughout their playing career and the RFU has an accurate picture of playing numbers
Of the 133,798 affiliated, 16,320 are girls and of the total, 38,180 signed up for the first time, with 95,921 renewing from last year. In all 852 clubs are affiliating age grade players.
Some clubs saw a significant increase in those affiliating. Among the front runners were Silhillians in Birmingham’s Solihull, who increased by 354 players, Caldy on Merseyside, who signed up 304 more youngsters, Canterbury, who put on 297, Farnham 277 and Bude 223.
The four RFU Constituent Bodies who surpassed the number of age grade affiliated players from last season were Kent, Somerset, Warwickshire and Notts, and Lincs & Derby.
Ben Lowe, the RFU’s Head of Player Experience said: “These figures are very encouraging and, with this still a work in progress, we anticipate even more affiliations which will give the game better clarity and understanding of numbers of young players in our clubs. It will be great for clubs, CBs and the RFU to start to be able to use this accurate data to keep more children engaged and moving into adult rugby when the time comes."
Videos support people in completing the affiliation process. These can be found on the RFU Club Support YouTube Channel.
