The Rugby Football Union (RFU) is to roll out a new, non-contact form of the game in schools in a bid to arrest the decline in the sport at school level, the governing body said on Monday.
The plan is the result of a widespread review that found a decline in school and youth rugby, even in its traditional private school strongholds, driven by concerns about injury and the view that it is a difficult game to introduce.
The review also showed evidence of a very large untapped market in schools which don’t have a tradition of playing rugby; among girls — for whom football has become a huge growth area — in communities where there have historically been few opportunities to play.
Following the recommendations of the review, the RFU has begun the rollout of T1 Rugby, a non-contact form of the game that has aspects of the existing tag rugby but also includes lineouts, scrums, kicking and a breakdown. The target is to have 5,000 schools playing T1 Rugby within the next four years.
Played with seven-a-side teams on half-sized pitches, the new development will be supported by T1 Rugby “flatpacks” provided by the RFU, containing all the equipment needed to play, as well as a range of resources for staff to be able to teach the game even if they have no rugby experience.
The RFU is also targeting the introduction of a national network of 100 school rugby managers by 2027, with 40 already in place working clusters of local schools.
The review also found that there is a perception that rugby remains a sport for “posh white boys.” The sport in England is hugely dominated by private schools, which offer fantastic facilities and coaching but hoover up state school talent via lucrative scholarship deals.
The top university teams, now starting to act as feeders for Premiership clubs, are massively over-represented by former private school pupils, which make up about 7% of the population.
Two thirds of England’s 2024 Six Nations squad had some level of private education, compared with 15% of the country’s Euro 2024 football squad.
“This is a moment for change,” said Jon Coles, who led the review. “The RFU must now take bold steps to make sure that schools with a strong rugby tradition want to play rugby and other schools want to join in.
“There is enormous potential for the growth of a game which is now played and loved by players of both sexes, all skin colours, all economic backgrounds and all shapes and sizes – but historically hasn’t reached this whole population.
“This is a critical time to take action and make it as easy and appealing as possible for schools to add rugby to their offering.”