One of England Rugby’s community rugby coaches offered to take a rugby training session and promote a new group wanting to play.  Nine turned up and now they have 25 players enjoying their rugby at York RI’s New Lane Ground.

For some York RI Templars players, this is the first time they have really enjoyed sport.  At school Josh Cunnington used to play dodge ball with the girls rather than getting bullied by playing football with the boys.  Rugby, he says, has changed his life.

“In recent years I suffered from social anxiety and was just having CBT therapy before joining the Templars.  I turned up and the boys became a massive part of my journey, the rugby has changed my life.  I was signed off therapy.

“These boys will be there for you and it doesn’t matter a bit if you’ve played rugby before or you’re into sport. It’s about being there for each other, playing as a team, standing together and saying we won’t put up with discrimination in sport.  All this has been made possible by York RI rugby club, without them we couldn’t have done it.”

Says Phill Gray, whose day job is Director of International at York St John University, responsible for all international students: “Going along to training on a Monday gets me out of the office enjoying rugby with friends.  It’s a great outlet.

“Many of us didn’t feel welcome playing sport at school where there was a lot of homophobic bullying and being around sports people created anxiety. Now we have this team and everyone is welcome. We’re a pretty new team but we put up a good fight on the pitch and we’re building a very inclusive and social circle here at York RI.  The whole thing has been overwhelmingly positive.

“We’ve found the sport and the club so welcoming and I’m tremendously grateful for the way the club and development coaches have been pushing us to try something new in a sport which is absolutely committed to inclusion.

“We recently had a game with the second team and mixed ability team and more experienced players were encouraging us and telling us we were doing so well after just eight months. We’ve got a tournament, the Hadrian Cup, in Newcastle with 17 other inclusive teams but the aim is to improve, play as much as possible and then see about joining a league.

“We’ve entered York Pride this year, not just as a team but as a whole club, which shows just how much support we have.”

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