Premiership Rugby today confirmed that Worcester Warriors will battle it out with Harlequins, Newcastle Falcons and Saracens for some of the most important awards in the rugby calendar.
The quartet have been shortlisted for the prestigious All Parliamentary Premiership Rugby Community Awards, which will be held on 19 June at the House of Commons.
The awards, which are in their eighth year, are being run in association with The All Party Parliamentary Rugby Union Group, Premiership Rugby, and media partner SportBusiness Group. Premiership Rugby’s partners Aviva, Land Rover and Perform Group are each sponsoring an award.
Clubs will be competing for three awards; the Community Impact Award supported by Aviva, the Play Award supported by Land Rover, and the BreakThru Award supported by Perform Group.
Warriors have been shortlisted alongside Saracens in the Community Impact Award supported by Aviva.
Carol Hart, Warriors Community Foundation Manager, said: “Worcester Warriors is delighted to be short-listed for the Community Impact Award. Community is and always has been at the heart of our club, it is the foundation upon which this great club has been built. We acknowledge our opposition for this prestigious award and look forward to battling it out in London.”
The Community Impact Award supported by Aviva will be given to the club which demonstrates the overall impact their community work has on a range of levels. The judges will be look for clubs to demonstrate the landscape of their community work and the impact it achieves.
The shortlist is:
- Saracens
- Worcester Warriors
Nick Gibbs, Aviva Sponsorship Manager, said: “We are extremely proud to be sponsoring the Community Impact Award again. The clubs deliver fantastic community programmes for a wide range of young people with differing abilities. It is only right these clubs have the opportunity to showcase the work they do and of course to be recognised through winning these great awards.”
The Play Award supported by Land Rover is designed to reward a bespoke programme or one-off piece of activity that encourages participation, improvement or excellence in the game of rugby union. The programme is not judged solely on size but rather the difference the programme has made in the community.
The shortlist is:
- Harlequins – Inner London Player Development Programme
- Newcastle Falcons – Summer of Touch Programme
Laura Schwab, Land Rover UK Marketing Director, said: “We are delighted to build on the successful involvement of Land Rover in community rugby by sponsoring this award which recognizes the innovative social programmes which Premiership Rugby clubs have developed to engage the local community. It's fantastic that the clubs are developing these initiatives which really show where the sport of rugby can help tackle key issues in their areas.
“Land Rover's commitment to rugby covers every level of the game, from Rugby World Cup 2015 through to the Land Rover Premiership Rugby Cup. We are committed to supporting the development of the young players of the future and recognising the innovative programmes which are run in the communities around the country, this is something we are extremely proud of.”
The BreakThru Award supported by Perform Group is designed to reward a programme or one off piece of activity that delivers a significant social change in their community. Entries must be bespoke programmes and demonstrate how they have delivered significant impact.
The shortlist is:
- Saracens – The Scrummy! Programme
- Saracens – The Pioneers Programme
Alex Rice, Director of Group Business Development, Perform Group said: “Each one of the Premiership Rugby clubs takes their responsibilities to the community extremely seriously and are doing some great work in engaging with their communities. Perform Group is delighted to be a sponsor of these very important awards.”
Mark McCafferty, Chief Executive of Premiership Rugby added: “Community programmes are crucial to Premiership Rugby. The Premiership Rugby clubs deliver more than 150,000 hours of community programming each year and community engagement is at an all-time high. This is underlined by the launch of our Play and BreakThru campaigns and our passing the milestone of more than 100,000 children being introduced to rugby through the Aviva Premiership Rugby Schools programme; a scheme which targets new-to-rugby, non-traditional rugby schools.
“The awards on 19 June recognise the depth and breadth of work around the country, acknowledge the most impactful clubs and provide best practice examples for other clubs to use.”
Kevin Roberts, Editorial Director at SportBusiness Group, said: “Sport Business is proud to be a partner of the All Parliamentary Premiership Rugby Community Awards once again. With the Rugby World Cup looming on the horizon, businesses committed to sports based CSR programmes or interested in building their reputations among rugby union fans in the UK should look at the community work being done here already and ask themselves: 'Why are we not supporting this?””