With the recent shocking news that UK Sport will not fund our GB programme for Tokyo you may think my title a bit strange but although I will come back to that decision in a minute I do not want it to define how we think about ourselves or our sport at the moment, nor cloud an otherwise bright picture of where we are. The decision does not change the reality that we are a sport that continues to be on the ‘up’ and continues to deliver amazing opportunities for all who are involved in our game. Just look at last weekend when history was made with @BrightonBuccs playing an all-female line… what an incredible achievement particularly at a time where there are concerns about opportunities for women to take part in sport #thisgirlREALLYcan. But there was more… we saw @dorsetdestroyer entering the Super Series for the first time. The club was established in 2014, held 4 taster sessions to gauge reaction as to whether there was demand for the sport, only to find out that there were many, many disabled people waiting for an opportunity to play. The club had played 6 friendlies in the build up to the Super Series, losing 2, drawing 2 and winning 2. There have been challenges on the way but Dorset dealt with them. They lost some players for health and other reasons and so the Dorset Destroyers merged with Woodbridge Warriors from Suffolk to play in the league under the Destroyers name. This is all fantastic development activity and I have great admiration for everyone who has helped Dorset on its journey but especially the local volunteers supported by Paul Arnold the regional development officer. Other things we should cheer at the moment are the success of our BT Youth Programme and our accredited coaching course, the next one starting in February. Our work with the military rehabilitation centres is also incredible. We continue to provide current and former service personnel with the opportunity to get back into physical activity in a competitive and exciting way as well as support the Invictus games. In Stuart Robinson we have our first Afghanistan veteran in the Talent pathway and he will challenge for a GB place. And that brings me back to the UK Sport decision and what we are doing about it.
One of the things I learnt during my service career is that there is nothing like a crisis to bring a team together! But let’s stop comparing this to a crisis because it’s not! – the brutality of what is happening to children, the old, the sick and injured in Aleppo today is a crisis – our situation is just not in this league! But we do have a significant challenge to address and the huge extended team which is at the heart of GBWR has come together in a way I am enormously proud of. I was struck by the @TigersWR tweet which read:
You’ll always have our support @GBWRNews through the good and the tough times!
I was quite moved by that because I know how much Tigers Chairman James Price has put into our sport over the years, he has worked tirelessly in ‘good and tough’ times for the benefit of the game and was one of the individuals who put together the very first of our funding bids. I have also been struck by the many, many individuals and organisations who have rallied around us, who do not necessarily have a direct relationship with us but who have pledged their support – those of you on social media will see the continuing tweets and comments that are out there. Our ambassador Mike Brown is being amazing. He has committed himself to leading the charge on finding other ways of raising the funds we need to get our team to Tokyo and I am meeting with him again later this week. He has also galvanized the power of the rugby family and we have had messages of support and encouragement from individuals and clubs throughout the country. Our Board has also rallied to the challenge. You will have seen the message from Kevin our Chairman and I am in daily contact with all board members who are providing real practical advice and support.
Firstly I must say that I respect the ‘no compromise’ approach that has been at the heart of the UK Sport investment strategy but I fear it has gone too far and led to some unintended consequences. As a nation I cannot believe we would wish to deprive high impairment athletes of the opportunity to represent their country at sport. As we all know and understand, for quadriplegics, wheelchair rugby provides the only real opportunity to participate in the Paralympic Games. I also think that those who enter the lottery believing they fund good causes would hope that such individuals were beneficiaries of lottery funding in the same way as teams and individuals whose profiles allow them to enjoy considerable financial support. Moreover, it is not as if we are ‘no-hopers’! We are the reigning European Champions, we are ranked 5th in the world and we are on the ascendency as recognized by all of our competitors. Consider the comments of the Head Coach of Australia, current Paralympic Gold medal holders who wrote a generous letter of support to me yesterday:
‘As we all know within the sport, our sport is so tight up the top and anyone in the Top 5 could have won it, just look at how many very close and even overtime games were played in Rio. You do not deserve to lose your funding completely. As I am sure you are aware, no European team has ever won a medal at a Paralympics or World Championships, and your program was heading in the direction of breaking this trend’. Brad Dubberley Head Coach Australia
At this point I do not want to give too much away about what we are doing but there are a number of different elements to how we are addressing this disappointing outcome. First and foremost we are looking into the decision itself and I am in discussion with legal advisors with a view to making a representation to UK Sport by the deadline which is next Monday. I am also involved in discussions with a number of key high profile individuals and organisations which will result in actions I am unable to give detail of at this point. I want you all to be very clear that it is my intention to have a medal winning team in Tokyo. I saw a tweet from Nigel Melville the former England rugby Captain and now the Performance Director at the RFU in which he said, ‘same goal different plan’ and that very much sums up my absolute commitment to our goal of Tokyo. We will be in Tokyo! and over the next few weeks and months you will see how we will bring that commitment to life. There is no way I intend for us to go back to where we were 4 years ago with our national squad. Under Lorraine and Paul’s leadership we have come a very long way and but for the bounce of a ball would have been in the semi-finals in Rio. The UK Sport decision has made me even more determined to make sure we have an even better elite programme going forward and I am pumped up and ready to do everything I possibly can to make that happen. The great thing is we are not alone. I have the support of a strong Chairman, a committed board, many committed partners and friends, and the whole rugby family behind me and the team. As you read this please do help by keeping an eye on the media and the website and support any campaign when it is launched, and get your friends and contacts to do the same. Please also support social media by tweeting and forwarding everything you see about us. This situation pales into insignificance for all of you who play the game compared with the many personal challenges you have faced and overcome in your lives. Together we will come through this and we will be stronger for it.
David Pond
