The Welsh National Schools Sevens Rugby competition is a collaboration between the WRU and the Urdd, which is set to attract teams from secondary schools or further education colleges across Wales.
From 4th-6th April, the competition will see more than 300 hours of rugby played across 12 playing fields, including Bridgend College Pencoed fields, Pencoed Secondary School fields, Pencoed Rugby Club fields.
The event was launched earlier this week on the back of stunning sevens success for Wales where men’s duo James Davies and Sam Cross won silver as part of the Team GB squad and Jasmine Joyce became the first Welsh woman to represent Team GB at rugby sevens in the Olympics.
WRU Head of Rugby Participation Ryan Jones said: “Sevens rugby is an exciting game which needs little introduction in Wales after the heroics of some of our greatest national sevens players representing GB in Rio last summer.
“After seeing such positive imagery of Sevens rugby beamed across the world, this is an exciting joint venture with the Urdd which will ensure the young people of Wales given more opportunity to participate in our sport.
“The competition will be the biggest of its kind to be held in Wales and further confirms the WRU’s ambition to increase participation by offering alternative forms of the game to new and existing players.
“This is a fantastic prospect for our young players which will hopefully bring a lasting positive rugby experience to engage players and their families in the sport for life. On behalf of the Welsh Rugby Union, I am very pleased to give the support to enable this to happen.”
In addition to the major event in Pencoed, the Urdd and WRU are working closely on developing competitions for boys and girls across Wales.
Amongst the developments for 2016/17 are a national 7s competition for primary schools and a national tag rugby competition for primary age girls, which will culminate in the finals in Aberystwyth in May.
For secondary schools there will be a further two competitions, a national touch rugby competition for boys, girls and mixed teams; and a national 7s rugby competition for girls, which will culminate in the finals in Llanelli in June.
Gary Lewis, Urdd Gobaith Cymru’s Director of Sports said, “The Urdd is very pleased to be able to announce the strengthening of our partnership with the Welsh Rugby Union, and as a result we have been able to expand on all of our girls and boys’ rugby activity, which includes the national sevens rugby competition which will be a fantastic three days of rugby.
More information about the rugby competitions, visit: www.urdd.cymru/sport
