Advantage! Ladies Touch Rugby League

The Pitch

Problem statement

We are seeking funding to sustain our impactful touch rugby initiative. Due to the success of our pilot scheme, where we had over 120 people playing touch for the very first time, we aim to now introduce a women's touch rugby league to run alongside a men's league. Since we introduced touch rugby to the area, we have supported the formation of 4 community ladies teams and we want to continue this progression. Advantage aim to offer coaching to the new teams and support them in participating in the touch rugby ladies league and also attend festivals throughout the country. This will allow players to demonstrate their latent potential and take advantage of progression routes that now exist.

Solution

We are seeking funding to sustain this impactful initiative, we need to fund more coaching time allowing all females to access rugby league coaching at minimal or no cost. We aim to support the coaching of the newly formed teams whilst also providing the opportunities to participate in our competitive league games and also offer support to access the touch rugby festivals. We will provide 2 staff members (who are also professional RL players) to support this initiative, offering 4 hours of coaching per week during the run up to the league commencing, and during the playing season. We will also support with officiating during the competition.

Why are we best placed to deliver?

The new Touch Rugby initiative was introduced by Advantage! and we aim to expand on our successful first season by introducing the women's league. Participants of our fun touch rugby sessions and our touch league games, far exceeded our estimated numbers. All participants enjoyed the initiative and numbers of interested players for the next season has increased again. It is due to the increase, especially in female participants, that we now aim to run 2 leagues for the area. Many of the participants are new to rugby league, having never played before, whilst others have taken up this non-contact form of the game as they no longer want full contact.

Focus Areas

Delivery plan

Budget breakdown

Beneficiaries

80 people

Who will benefit

Expected impact

We think there is no better way of getting fit and active, burning calories, building muscle tone and having fun with your friends, without having to be a member of a gym. Touch rugby is a great way to introduce new players to the sport as well as encourages others to return. We aim to develop participants skills and confidence while providing new challenges and opportunities for women in sport. We want to ensure that no individual is excluded from accessing the game and provide a team-sport experience to those women who previously would not have had such an opportunity. Rugby League is a tough sport but Touch Rugby gives an opportunity for players who do not want the physicality and this in turn has seen many women taking up the sport for the first time. The spin off from this has been the formation of the community women's teams. We now want to provide professional coaching to the teams as well as continuing to promote the women's game for other's to participate too.

Track record

It is not by accident, that after the formation of another of our initiatives for females, Raider Girls, as well as our touch rugby league pilot in 2023, women’s rugby has grown enormously in our area. As well as the introduction of 5 new youth teams, our promotion of females in the game has aided the formation of 4 new ladies community teams and this is shortly to be increased to 5. Meaning 64 new players of the sport! Barrow Raiders Ladies Super League team and the Ladies Reserves teams continue to go from strength-to-strength and 7 of our female players have been selected for the squads, with 2 now representing the Super League side, who will this year be competing with giants of the game, St Helens, Leeds and York Valkyrie. The introduction of the Advantage! touch rugby sessions and league in 2023, has enabled not only new players to be introduced to the sport but also playing opportunities for players who no longer wanted to play the full contact version of rugby league.

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