Category: News

didi rugby is looking forward to developing further links with local clubs following the announcement of the Rugby Union’s Early Years Guidance Framework this week.

didi founder and CEO Vicky Macqueen was asked to advise the RFU on the newly-released document as the game’s governing body has officially recognised the importance of developing the 18 months to five years old age group.

Their framework will now be sent out to all RFU-affiliated clubs in the country showing them the way to develop their own set-up.

And while working closely with clubs, those sort of set-ups have already been put in place by didi rugby franchises over the country during the last 18 months. didi rugby have become a recognised and trusted provider of the sort of age-specific learning that the RFU are now backing.

didi franchises are working with rugby clubs in England and Wales at: Beverley, Pocklington, Whitchurch, Crewe and Nantwich, Market Bosworth, Kenilworth, Loughborough, Shepshed, Ashby, Glais, St Helens, Hinckley, Lutterworth, Burbage, Coventry, Coventrians and Old Coventrians, Reading, Aldermaston, Thatcham, Lydney, Chipping Norton and Cinderford, with more in the pipeline.

Vicky’s home club Hinckley RFC has already benefitted from a conveyer belt of six-year-olds who have joined the club after ‘graduating’ from didi rugby classes.

Hinckley chairman John Tilley explained how dozens of children filtered into their minis section having been involved in didi rugby classes from a young age.

“We have had massive success linking up with didi rugby,” he said. “I think it was around 40 new children who came into our under-6 age group last year.

“Not only were there 40 kids but they had done some good stuff already as well. didi rugby is a brilliant initiative and it gets kids active. Ultimately, that’s what we are about isn’t it? Getting kids active.

Hinckley’s club coaching coordinator Tom Kilburn said at the time: “I have been really impressed with the ability of these children that have joined us. Most are in possession of great motor skills, with the ability to listen and follow instructions well.

didi rugby founder and CEO Vicky Macqueen has joined forces with Switch the Play and former England and Leicester Tigers centre, Leon Lloyd, to try and help elite sports men and women learn from her experiences of life after a career in sport.

Switch The Play is a social enterprise dedicated to helping athletes perform better and prepare for their next phase through developing a life outside of the sporting field.

Switch the Play is underpinned by a ‘pracademic’ approach, using those who have experienced a career in sport to deliver their message. CEO Leon Lloyd was therefore delighted to welcome Vicky to the Switch the Play team as an associate, to deliver educational masterclasses to elite and aspiring athletes.

The former England Women’s international with 34 caps left the sporting arena that had served her so well in 2009 and had a family before launching didi rugby and going on to be presented with a British Empire Medal (BEM) for her services to women’s rugby.

Leon, meanwhile, had a stellar professional rugby career with Tigers and Gloucester before retiring and learning some valuable lessons about how tough the transition is, into what athletes often describe as ‘the real world’. His book: ‘Life After Sport’ tells of that emotional journey.

“Switch The Play helps people put plans in place to make the most of themselves,” said Leon. “It is never too early to start planning for the nextstage of your life. At Switch the Play, we encourage athletes to see developing themselves alongside their sport as an extension of Plan A, rather than as a Plan B. This not only helps them once they transition but also has a positive impact on their sporting performances.

“You have to plan for your transition. People won’t give you a job because you can score tries, goals or run fast.”

“I am passionate about helping others learn from my mistakes and we are focused on offering guidance to people while they are still competing to help them better transition to their life afterwards.

“It’s important for athletes to use their sport now. Don’t wait for other people to come to you. Go to them and be pro-active.”

Vicky said she was looking forward to getting involved: “Switch The Play hopes to make a positive difference to the lives of athletes and it will be great to play a part in that,” she said.
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“As I have found over the last couple of years while developing didi rugby, there are plenty of lessons to be learned in the business world but also plenty of people and organisations who will support you and help you to succeed.

“I am really looking forward to telling my experiences, good and bad, to the next group of athletes who are ready to take a step that may seem scary and challenging but is also exciting and full of opportunities.”

didi rugby founder and CEO Vicky Macqueen writes about some worrying trends towards the levels of obesity and inactivity in our children and says we must not let down a generation of young people

I have read some worrying statistics and reports in recent weeks about how the devil of inactivity is affecting our children.

In Wales, one of didi rugby’s strongest heartlands, 12.4 per cent of four and five-years-olds are obese, Type 2 diabetes is on the rise and half of the nation’s young people, boys and girls, are not doing regular sport.

As someone who runs a business aimed at getting children of exactly that age active and healthy, news like that is hard to hear.

Especially when the vast majority of the kids I have met who are involved in physical activity are happy ones.

Laura McAllister, the former chair of Sport Wales writing in Wales Online says the nation needs to start ‘investing properly’ in early years teachers and carers.

“Preschool children should have at least an hour of structured physical activity (that is, adult-led) and at least an hour of unstructured free play every day,” she says.

She also believes that, in school, PE should have ‘the same status as maths, English, Welsh and science to fulfil the government ambition of creating ‘healthy, confident individuals’.

Amen to that.

Meanwhile, The Mail on Sunday have reported data gathered by the universities of Exeter and Plymouth from 807 kids in 32 Devon schools.

It concluded that just one in 30 children aged nine or ten completed the recommended amount of daily exercise.

One in 30! Think about that for a minute. That’s about one child in every school classroom.

Just three months after launching didi rugby Crewe & Nantwich, franchise owner Katie Heirene is now running classes in five different venues.

Katie and her team are didi rugby’s pioneers for the north west region and her Crewe and Nantwich franchise is the first one to open in the area.

The popularity of didi rugby’s early months in the region have helped Katie to spread the values and enjoyment of didi rugby classes far and wide.

And classes are now taking place in Tarporley, Audlem, Nantwich and Whitchurch.

The latter of those venues represents Crewe & Nantwich’s first partnership with a rugby club, going in line with didi rugby’s desire to build strong links with clubs to provide a natural progression for children and their parents when kids become too old for didi classes after the age of six.

Katie says she is grateful for the support she has received from parents, clubs, businesses and organisations and is also looking forward to delivering her first didi rugby birthday party this weekend.

“It has been a very exciting first few months,” said Katie. “I really enjoy delivering the classes and we have some fantastic groups now.

“The kids are really getting to grips with the games we play and I love it when, a few weeks after they start, the children are happy for their parents to take a step back and they get stuck in on their own. It shows their confidence is blossoming.”

Tommy Oliver was so unsteady on his feet that he would ‘fall over his own shadow’ according to his mum Sally.

Yet just over a term into his time as a star at didi rugby Reading’s Aldermaston classes, he has become a totally different boy.

The four-year-old from Bramley near Basingstoke has recently been diagnosed with Hypermobility Syndrome. It’s a condition that features joints which easily move beyond the expected range.

As a result, it can be hard to control those joints, which can dislocate easily. People with Hypermobility Syndrome can also suffer from pain in their limbs – especially in the knees, hips and elbows.

“He’s clumsy and he falls over all of the time,” Sally added. “It’s hard for him to keep his joints in place and the strain that puts on his body makes him tired.”

With older brother Owen (19) a player at Aldermaston RFC, one of the clubs that didi rugby have partnered with in the Reading area, Sally saw that didi rugby classes were held there and decided to give it a go for Tommy.

“He is quite shy and it takes him a while to come out of his shell but he managed to stay upright throughout the session,” said Sally.

“He was 20 months old before he could walk and some of his joints, like his knees and shoulders, dislocate a lot so we never thought he would enjoy didi rugby as much as he has done.

“He wanted to come back after his first session and he has just finished a full term and moved up into the four to six-year-old group.

“It’s like if you put a rugby ball in his hand, he can run in a straight line!

didi rugby Reading’s double act of Craig Hunter and Donna Clark say their early months as a rapidly-growing franchise proves that the didi model works.

Since launching didi rugby Reading in February 2018, the classes have really captured the imagination of the public and businesses in the local area.

Sessions are currently held across Berkshire in Reading, Ascot and Newbury while partnerships are already up and running with the likes of Aldermaston, Reading and Thatcham rugby clubs.

A formal link has been made with professional club London Irish RFC and a partnership with Eddie Cats has seen classes held in their soft play venues.

Craig says he is delighted by the speed of their progress, the support from didi UK and the positive way in which the franchise has been received within the local community.

“I have been involved with rugby since I was 14 but I was working in recruitment and wanted to do something like this full-time,” he said.

“The support from didi was spot on in the build up to launch and the infrastructure was right too.

“My wife is in the education sector and she saw what we did for her school as a taster session and said there is a huge scope for growth in that early years foundations stage for something like didi rugby.

“So we took the plunge and went for it full-time and we are confident we will continue to grow with the help of Vicky and team didi behind us.

“Our links with local clubs are important and we are trying to help those without big mini sections so they can use their link with us as stepping stone to build their Under-6s.

didi rugby Swansea has been growing at a rapid rate and now franchise owner Robyn Lock has news of further expansion into another area of Wales.

Classes are currently run in Swansea, Neath and Port Talbot at numerous venues.

Now Robyn and her team are heading further afield to spread the values of didi rugby.

“In November, we will have some exciting news about didi rugby coming to the Carmarthenshire area,” said Robyn, who also plays for Ospreys Women.

“It fills me with joy knowing that we are expanding every month and getting further out there in Wales giving children the chance to be active and healthy.

“Kids are learning transferable skills they can use in many sports and they are learning the positive associations with being active at an early age.

“That is giving them an ideal platform to be active and healthy in later life.

“Our disability clasees in Sketty have been going really well too with some lovely children learning new skills there.

didi rugby has successfully launched 17 franchises since beginning a quest to spread the values of the business across the length and breadth of the country and further afield with overseas operations now up and running.

And we don’t intend to stop there in a bid to grow an exciting and rewarding business which will enter 2019 with a strong and repeatedly proven business model.

From Swansea to Reading and Crewe to Coventry, didi rugby centres have set up to provide a safe and fun learning environment for children aged between 18 months and 6 years of age.

Opportunities now exist to open new didi franchises in areas all over the UK and they can be run on a part-time or full-time basis. You will join our winning team but you will become an owner of your own business.

If you would like to get involved with a passionate and dedicated group of like-minded people, or you would like to find out more about the possibilities didi rugby can offer, we would like to hear from you.

didi UK prides itself not only on the care and attention to detail we provide before a new franchise is launched – but to the aftercare given to help each franchise owner learn from our expertise to help grow their business.

didi UK’s support is never far away and with a close-knit and connected group of franchise owners swapping ideas and best practice at all times, new franchisees soon become part of a tight network that looks after each other.

Franchise and Commercial lead Sanchia Delacy said: “This is a great opportunity for many people, from different backgrounds, both sporting and corporate.

“We are seeing an increased amount of investors looking at the didi rugby opportunity and working this into either an existing portfolio of businesses or as an isolated investment to gain a residual income as this grows.

Coventry Rugby chairman Jon Sharp says he is delighted to partner with didi rugby and hopes some of the youngsters involved in classes will go on to represent the club in later life.

The formal partnership will see the city’s Championship team, who play at Butts Park Arena, throw their continued support behind the Gulliver family, franchise owners of didi rugby Coventry.

didi classes are held at Coventry Rugby Club every Saturday morning.

“We are very proud to be partnering with didi rugby Coventry,” said Jon.

“We are very keen on our work in the community with young people and are pleased that kids are getting fit, involved with sport and playing the ultimate team sport of rugby.

“The game of rugby breeds great values like team work and respect, passion and enjoyment and we think didi rugby is a great place for the kids to be.

“Hopefully they will come through our system and ultimately play for Coventry!”

The partnership is the latest one to be launched by didi rugby franchises as they attempt to create a pathway for their didi kids to progress to tag rugby when they become too old for didi sessions.

didi rugby Midlands’ link with Hinckley RFC has already proved to be very fruitful with upwards of 40 children moving on from didi’s senior age group into the club’s minis.

didi rugby Coventry’s head coach Sophie Gulliver said the club was already very close to the family’s heart.

“Coventry Rugby Club holds a special place in our heart as a family and all of us, for some reason or another, have spent most our weekends there,” she said.