Rugby World Cup Legacy — House of Commons, 2015-11-06
Topic: Mixed Topics
Edward Vaizey (Conservative, Centre-right): I am grateful for the opportunity to reply to the debate called by my hon. Friend the Member for Rugby (Mark Pawsey). However, I first want to congratulate you, Madam Deputy Speaker, on gaining the Back Bencher of the year award from The Spectator. I was lucky enough to be at the lunch where you were awarded this honour not once, but twice, even though you had to tear yourself away from your parliamentary duties. It is good to see you back in the Chair, Madam Deputy Speaker I had an extremely undistinguished rugby career, but I now realise that I was ahead of my time because at the age of 16 I was playing "walking rugby". I am now aware that it is a game that I should adopt when I am 65! I had a brief appearance in the first 15 when somebody passed me the ball and the biggest bloke in the school failed to tackle me, but I was quickly relegated to the third 15 where we racked up some astonishing scores for the opposing team My hon. Friend has raised some interesting points about the tournament. It was indeed described by the chairman of World Rugby as the "best-attended, most-watched, most socially-engaged, most commercially-successful Rugby World Cup" It is important to point out from the outset that my hon. Friend has been very engaged with this tournament, both within his constituency and on a national level. It was good to hear from him about the benefits a local economy can gain from a major national or international event such as this one. It was also important that he reminded us that that does not happen by accident; it takes the hard work of people such as him and others to make sure that it is realised The town of Rugby, as the birthplace of the game, played an important part in the tournament and was the proud home of it. It hosted several events. The successful fanzone, to which my hon. Friend referred, brought visitors from far and wide to the Webb Ellis Rugby Football Museum, and it was also good to hear about some of the arts and cultural events that took place, that being my main remit. The excellent festival of rugby that accompanied the tournament involved 1,000 events across the country, which were attended by more than a million people. There were concerts, street parties, sport tournaments and exhibitions. Indeed, my hon. Friend went so far as to mention the seminal "Rugby’s got balls" exhibition, featuring giant rugby ball sculptures. However—although I may have missed it—I do not think he mentioned the "Rugbeards" portrait exhibition put on by a local flower shop, featuring men with flowers in their beards, I must, of course, offer my congratulations to New Zealand as champions. I was, sadly, at the game in which Australia put England out of the tournament. I must also offer my gratitude, and that of the Government, to England Rugby 2015, which ran a brilliant, highly professional tournament. It did a fantastic job selling tickets for all the matches, including those featuring the tier 2 nation games. Eleven cities in England and Wales hosted 2.5 million fans over six weeks—the largest number of fans ever to attend any rugby world cup. Wembley hosted two consecutive matches which broke rugby world cup attendance records My hon. Friend mentioned the pack, the 6,000 volunteers who, as he said, were crucial to the fans’ experience. It could not have happened without them. Many of the volunteers were recruited from the rugby community in England and Wales. It was great to see people who play such a big part in the sport at the grass-roots level being rewarded with the opportunity to play a part in the biggest event in their sport Of course, the wider legacy issue is not just about engaging and rewarding those who are already passionate about the sport, but about inspiring new fans and new players. The Rugby Football Union developed detailed plans before the tournament to capitalise on the event and take advantage of the huge amount of enthusiasm that it generated. As my hon. Friend said, that included spreading the game in schools, especially state schools which have not traditionally played rugby. The programme has reached 130,000 pupils, and I am delighted to say that a third of them are girls. As a result, 3,000 young people have joined rugby clubs, and are playing the game regularly. The mini and junior sections in clubs tend to be pretty strong. There are 150,000 registered players and 6,000 teams in the 6-to-13 age bracket. Tag and touch rugby tournaments aimed at youngsters are becoming incredibly popular As well as attracting new players to the game, the Rugby Football Union has strong legacy plans to strengthen the infrastructure that surrounds it. It is improving facilities by means of a £10 million investment, and investing in the people—the coaches, referees and volunteers—whom we need to sustain the enthusiasm of the new players As we saw at the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic games and last year’s Tour de France Grand Départ in Yorkshire—I am not sure whether that is the Yorkshire pronunciation—the east of England and London, major events in the UK can reach far beyond these shores, bringing significant benefits, including visitors and investment from overseas. It is estimated that nearly half a million international visitors came to England and Wales to watch and take part in the rugby world cup tournament, generating about £1 billion of additional spending in the UK. I am sure that all those visitors had a wonderful time. That is another illustration of the links that can be created by a great sporting tournament, which can have an impact not just on the sport itself but on tourism, our economy, and arts and culture—the wider brief, as it were.