Warriors lock Justin Clegg hopes his recognition as Premiership Rugby’s Gallagher Community Player of the Season will inspire more of his team-mates to blaze a similar trail in the local community.
Clegg, 25, bagged the prestigious prize at this week’s Premiership Rugby Awards ceremony in London after his inspirational exploits away from the pitch this season.
Clegg – who signed a new one-year deal at Sixways last month – has used his free time and status to elevate and raise awareness for several vital initiatives including the club’s Dementia Café and Monday morning Inclusive Rugby sessions.
The Durham University graduate beat fellow Premiership stars Tom Wood, Lewis Ludlow, Simon Hammersley, Sean Maitland, Stefan Lewies and Malakai Fekitoa to the prize and believes the crown can prove a perfect catalyst for encouraging more of his teammates to follow in his footsteps.
Clegg, who was announced the winner at the Honorable Artillery Company on Tuesday, said: “I just want to continue helping the club’s community foundation grow and develop in any way they can.
“For me personally, I want to get more and more players involved.
“Hopefully something like this means they will recognise that we’re doing some really good work – so hopefully they’ll start to come along with me too.
“It’s really special to win this award. When I got told I was nominated, that in itself was a privilege – looking at the other guys, there is some serious stuff that they’re doing as well.
“To be recognised above and beyond these is really special.
“It’s just something I felt was important to start doing – Worcester’s a beautiful place and city but unfortunately there are a lot of people who need help, whether that’s disability, mental health or homelessness.
“I just thought we’ve got such a fantastic Community Foundation at the club who help all of these people – and that was something I really wanted to get involved in.
“It was the Dementia Café that got me into it initially – I was looking for something to do after graduating from university, and having spoken to a couple of senior players, they mentioned it was something that would be worthwhile doing.
“Chris Pennell, a club legend and trustee, said just get involved – they are great people and that’s how it really kicked off.”
Clegg helped fire Warriors to the Premiership Rugby Cup title last month but it’s away from the pitch where he’s been making his most indelible mark on the local community, attending the club’s Inclusive Rugby sessions whenever his training schedule allows and not being afraid to get stuck into any activities thrown his way to offer positive encouragement, advice, and support to participants. He was also appointed a Trustee of the Foundation earlier in the season.
Clegg is also a very familiar face at the Wednesday morning Dementia Café, where he takes part in in dominoes, seated exercises, boccia and – of course – talking rugby with a raft of keen participants.
He is one of the main driving forces behind the team’s involvement in community projects and takes active roles in the community organising, collecting and delivering food donations from the men’s and women’s teams to the local food bank.
Clegg stayed late into the evening at the Big Worcester Sleepout at Sixways, that raised funds for three charities linked to helping homelessness, and is also a keen ambassador for reducing the stigma of wearing hearing aids as a younger person, opening up publicly about his journey to realising and embracing his hearing impairment to improve his quality of life.
“It’s just really nice to see how these people react to having players there – whether that’s me or anyone else at the club,” said Clegg.
“It makes a really big difference to their day or week, having a quick chat, letting them ask you some rugby questions and that in itself is really rewarding.
“We don’t do it to be recognised for things like this – we just do it because we know we’re helping people in your community who at the end of the day, are your fans as well.
“Every club has got a community foundation and they’re all doing a great job – they’re all doing really good work and you want to have a good rapport with these people.”