The Prime Minister's Visit and Youth Re-launch

Now that the dust has settled somewhat, its a good time to reflect on what brought David Cameron and Lord Coe down to the club last weekend and what it can mean for Millwall (and no, it wasn't that the PM is interested in a Tank's hooker's position)

£150 Million
As many of you will know, they ostensibly came down to publicise the fact that the Government are investing £150 million into primary schools, about £10,000 into each, allowing each primary school direct control over their sports involvement and thus continuing the legacy of the Olympics. Leaving the politics aside, any investment into sport has to be good and we'd hope that some of that will come Millwall's way to the betterment of the club and its members.

Reasons
The visit certainly didn't come about by accident and the main reasons include:
• The RFU are obviously working hard to highlight rugby's part to play in sport, particularly with the World Cup coming in 2015, and have a good relationship with the Government
• We have a great relationship with the RFU and have shown with Stuart Lancaster's visit and the launch of RugbyForce that we can put on a well organised event in our superb clubhouse.
• The club is convenient to central London. David Cameron had to be at the Spring Party conference after our visit
• We're in a traditionally disadvantaged area where there is massive potential for rugby development, bringing the sport to many who would not otherwise have been involved
• we have a fantastic club with great members and hard working committees, both present and past

Thanks
I'm sorry I couldn't share the arrangements with you and name our distinguished visitors but for reasons of security, I had to keep quiet until the morning of the event. No one else in the club knew and I had some explaining to do to my mother as well! It couldn't have happened without help so thanks in particular go to Scott for helping me organise it with the schools, Sophie for the press coverage and also everyone who turned up to help with the event, the kids training etc.

Youth
We should remember that the whole point from our point of view was Youth rugby development.

We all know young players are essential to any club but what a lot of people don't know is that Youth sections can finance adult rugby, the trade off being volunteer time, particularly at the start. A lot of grants are also conditional on Youth involvement. Plus we wouldn't be enjoying our rugby were it not for a Youth section somewhere.

We've been granted an extraordinary opportunity to rebuild the Youth section and I'm asking you to help make the most of it. If 8 people do one Sunday per month per person for 3 months, April, May and June, that should be enough time to get the momentum and the parents. Just 6 hours. Contact myself or Scott  for further details, youthchair@millwallrugby.com

Finally, David Cameron and Lord Coe have asked us to give them an update on how we are doing, wouldn't be great to say we once again have a thriving Youth Section? I guarantee that would yield another visitor and money for the club.

For further details on the visit and some pictures, read Sophie's blog here
http://millwallrugby.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/david-cameron-and-lord-sebastian-coe.html

Millwall Rugby Club's Youth Programme, for children aged 6-14, meets every Sunday from 11am - 1pm. It's free to attend and all levels of ability, from complete newcomers up, are welcome

Thanks
Tim

Chairman
Millwall Rugby Club
chairman@millwallrugby.com