Coventry school children get set for Aviva Finals Day appearance

Coventry schoolchildren have been perfecting their tag rugby skills in preparation for a game at the Aviva Premiership Rugby Final at Twickenham Stadium.

Pupils from Finham Primary School and the Phoenix Federation have been selected to take part in a tag rugby demonstration as part of the entertainment for spectators at the showpiece final at Twickenham Stadium on Saturday, May 30.

All 20 pupils are part of Wasps’ community development programme and have been taking part in Premiership Rugby’s Something to Chew On programme, which aims to encourage healthy living habits through rugby, and Aviva Tackling Numbers, which helps to increase children’s confidence and understanding of numerical skills.

Engage! is a major initiative which aims to teach values through rugby coaching and has been contracted to deliver Wasps’ community development programme.

Engage! hosted a variety of rugby coaching sessions at the Alan Higgs Centre in Allard Way to help the schoolchildren improve their skills in the lead up to the match.

Tom Clift, programme manager at Engage!, said:

The children have been given a really exciting opportunity to be involved in a major rugby event.

They will join hundreds of schoolchildren from around the country to take part in the tag rugby demonstration where they will be able to put all of the skills they have learnt into practice.

They will also get the chance to watch the professionals in action and we hope they will be inspired by those taking part in the sport.

All of the children were eager to take part in tag rugby coaching sessions in the build-up to finals day and they have done a fantastic job in picking up the techniques.

Engage! also looks to teach schoolchildren the key values of the game including teamwork, respect, integrity, enjoyment and discipline, and we hope that they will see how these are encompassed by the players on Finals Day.