Leeds Rhinos Foundation’s annual Learning Disability Tag Rugby Festival took place last week at the John Charles Centre for Sport and saw over 150 players participating in a day of rugby.
The festival is one of Leeds Rhinos Foundation’s flagship events and is part of the charity’s commitment to making sport inclusive and creating sporting opportunities for people of all abilities.
Young people and adults with learning disabilities, physical impairments and sensory impairments enjoyed a day of training and tag matches and the chance to meet Leeds Rhinos mascot, Ronnie the Rhino, and players from Leeds Rhinos Foundation’s Physical Disability Rugby League (PDRL) team.
Leeds Rhinos Foundation’s partners Aspire CBS, who support people with learning disabilities to have better lives, brought five teams to the tournament and Super League side Warrington Wolves brought a junior Learning Disability Rugby League team (LDRL) to enjoy the event.
Chris Godfrey, disability coordinator at Leeds Rhinos Foundation, said: “This event has been running for a number of years now and it’s still good to see everybody having fun and leaving with a smile on their face.
“I am proud of this event and to work with people in the disability community, which is a part of our society that is often overlooked. This is a really important event for our charity and demonstrates the power of sport in bringing people together and breaking down barriers. We’re getting these guys down and they are taking part and enjoying rugby league like everybody else.”
This year has seen Leeds Rhinos Foundation expand their work with people with disabilities and along with their regular coaching in the community, the charity successfully launched their first PDRL team who competed in the UK’s first PDRL game. Now the charity is looking to extend their delivery even further with a LDRL team.
“We work closely with organisations like Aspire CBS and specialist inclusive learning centres in Leeds to provide coaching and education sessions and the brand of Leeds Rhinos is so powerful in helping us engage with the people we work with. Following the success of our PDRL team and the work we do in the learning disability community the natural progression is to form a LDRL team. We had the Warrington Wolves LDRL team at the festival, which was great, and hopefully players that attended from Leeds would want to get involved in our team.”
Dan Roberts and Paul Selves, who both play for the PDRL team attended the festival to give their support and hand out medals in the presentation.
Roberts said: “To come down and get involved with the event and see loads of children and adults with a variety of learning disabilities get stuck in and have so much fun has been inspiring.
“It’s massively important that Leeds Rhinos Foundation run events like this because the charity has got a reach across the Leeds community and can help promote both Learning Disability and Physical Disability rugby and encourage players to pick up a ball and take part in sport.”
If you want to know more about what Leeds Rhinos Foundation does for disabled sport in Leeds, email Chris.Godfrey@leedsrhinosfoundation.org
Rhinos TV also attended the festival. Check out their video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=898UXrkpB1w