It has been a good week. It started last weekend with the North East Bulls who celebrated their 10th Anniversary in style with a regional tournament. The North East Bulls took the final on Sunday beating the Dragons narrowly by 39-36 in a competition that also saw the Caledonian Crushers in only their second competitive outing. It is really excellent to see that regional tournament taking place and to see Crushers really developing as a new club so well done and congratulations to all teams and to Bulls on their anniversary. At the other end of the country I was able to join the Hawks in Plymouth for their Monday night training session. It was fantastic to see 9 new players and to experience the incredible enthusiasm for the game and for the new club. I met Matt Chaffe who only left the SIU back in March but is already focused on wanting to be an international athlete. He travels to Plymouth for the weekly training sessions from his home in Newquay . Another young lady told me how fantastic the game is and how she just loves coming to the sessions and wants to be a club player. Plymouth has also attracted Cyril Illman, a RFU referee who now wants to hang up his boots on the able bodied game to become a WR referee. He was bowled over by the sport having been a volunteer at the London games. Having spoken with and been supported by Lyn Collins, he was at the training session with his handbook practising his hand signals! So much of the credit for this great surge of energy in Plymouth is down to Chris Perkins – himself an RFU Coach Educator. He has worked with local partners and with Amanda Thomas to get this show on the road and has done a brilliant job – so thank you Chris – another of our volunteers who is a great ambassador for our sport. On Tuesday next, Kirsty and I will be presenting our 2013-2017 plan to the Sport England Investment Panel in the hope that we can secure all the funding we are after to develop the sport over the next 4 years – so keep your fingers crossed for us!
David Pond
