Storm with the BT Cup, presented by partner Roma Sports
There is a real sense of energy and momentum with our sport at the moment and long may it continue! The weekend was really excellent – a very high quality of rugby, a good venue and a well organised and supported event delivered by the GBWR staff; thank you to them and to the many volunteers and officials. It brought the domestic season to an end on a high note. Congratulations to Storm who pulled away from Tigers to win the BT Cup by 7 points and to Gaelic who put 24 points on Burn to win the BT Shield 64 points to 40. I know that a number of clubs now field some foreign players in their teams but even with this it is clear to see that not only are the number of clubs growing, so is the standard of the rugby. This is good news for our domestic competitions and also great for the future of the national team.
Gaelic Warriors with the BT Shield
Yesterday our ambassador Mike Brown joined a group of GB players for a media session down in the BT Sport studios. It was a fun day hosted by Martin Bayfield who is now becoming quite knowledgeable about the game. We are very fortunate to have Mike whose time is limited but which he gives to us freely. He does attract the media and that is good for us as he helps to continue our aim of raising the profile of the game. There will be a number of media releases over the coming months that will come out of yesterday’s session as the idea was to capture as much as we could before we lose Mike again to international duty and hopefully selection for the Australia tour. The first media release will be on Monday and if you have BT Sport then tune in to Rugby Tonight on Monday and you will see Mike in action with the team. Our work with BT Sport comes from the sponsorship deal we were able to achieve last year and hopefully you are able to enjoy some of the benefits of that. The website now has a number of short videos plugged in covering the BT Nationals and the Tri-Nations and these have all been produced as part of our partnership with BT. In addition it was BT funding that helped cover the costs of the Nationals supported also with additional funding from Roma Sports so a big thank you to both partners.
GBWR Ambassador and England Rugby star Mike Brown with Ayaz Bhuta and Bulbul Hussain of the BT GB Team, and Head Coach Paul Shaw
Attention next week turns back to the GB squad who enter camp on Monday for the final stages of the Paralympic selection process. Selection will take place at the end of next week but because we then nominate the team to Paralympics GB, the announcement of who is in the squad will not be made until 12 May. Good luck to all those athletes who are hoping to make the cut. Meanwhile the GB Invictus team is preparing to leave for Orlando and the Invictus Games which starts the week of the 9th. Wheelchair Rugby is on 11th and GB will be hoping to retain the Gold Medal it won in London last year. Good luck to them and to GB coach Jinx.
This week we are in the process of closing the accounts on the last year and the auditors are busy with their work, as is our Finance Trustee Andrew Flatt who is doing a great job – thank you! I am writing my annual report which goes with the accounts and which we submit to a range of bodies including our funders, the Charity Commission and Companies House. The report also gets presented to you the Members and this year the AGM will take place at 5pm on 13 July at Twickenham. More details to follow but a date for you to put in your diary.
Have a good week.
David Pond
