The Barbados Rugby Football Union staged its first Primary School Get Into Rugby Festival in June 27th at the Historic Garrison Savannah.

Thirty-five primary school children, boys and girls between the ages of 6 and 11, participated in the 2-hour event which was overseen by eight of the Union’s GIR coaches. Players participated in a series of GIR games such as Maze Runner, Scarecrow Tag and Zombie, each of which teaches different Rugby skills in a fun, non-contact format, thus enabling boys and girls of different ages to participate in the same activities.

The event was supported by Banks Holdings, who provided a tent for the comfort of supporting parents and the players, as well as refreshments in the form of sampling of the new Plus Active Sports drink.

The Festival culminates what has been a very successful introduction to Barbados for the World Rugby Get Into Rugby programme, with over 1000 students being exposed to the game since the launch in February of 2015.

“The response to the programme has been tremendous at both the primary and secondary school levels.” said the BRFU’s GIR Project Coordinator George Nicholson. “With the start of secondary school promotion exams in May, we took the decision to focus on the primary schools between May and the end of the school term in early July, and that has paid off in a big way, with some schools inviting us to come back in the 2015-2016 school year to deliver Rugby as one of their sports offerings.

A Secondary School GIR Festival is planned for next weekend, July 4th, at the Garrison and Rugby will be offered at the National Sports Council’s summer camp at Deighton Griffith Secondary School from July 6th.

For further details on the programme and how your child can participate in it, please contact George Nicholson at gnicholson@adebbarbados.com