Like Wales – the Llanelli Warriors had a very mixed 6 Nations on field but off field the integrated team are hoping that the concept of people with learning difficulties have the opportunity to play rugby union has taken a major step forward.

The 6 nations is always a busy period for the Warriors and they kicked off with a narrow 5-3 defeat to travelling French side XV De L’erdre but responded the next day by retaining the Anniversary cup at Cefneithin.
They recorded a solid victory over Asda before travelling to Bradford for the H Bomb Trophy. In front of hundreds of spectators the Warriors almost sprang a major surprise to win away from home but the Bumble Bee Barbarians hang on for a 29-24 victory.
Further disappointment came when Scotland’s only integrated side The Clan won the third cross border contest 15 – 19 but the team finished on a high, travelling up to Cardiff and defeating Gwlad.com 29 – 12.
Warriors player/coach Gwilym Lewis reflected on a busy 7 weeks
“The Warriors are about trying to give our players rugby experiences and in that respect this 6 Nations has been fantastic – 3 ‘international’ matches, a high profile match in England, hosting a Scottish side, playing up in Cardiff on international day and experiencing French rugby. Many of our player’s only rugby experience before the Warriors was watching matches on the telly. Within two months they have played 6 matches against teams from 3 countries, they have been up to Cardiff on international day and had two hundred cheer on the opposition in deepest England. These are experiences any rugby player can relate to and these boys should be respected for what they have achieved. It’s these shared experiences and this respect that helps our players so much, as well as fitness and coordination that sport brings, we see confidence grow, social skills develop and many other benefits. Obviously we were disappointed with the results, especially as we played some excellent rugby and felt in a couple of the matches we were the better team”.

Andrew Davies is in his 1st season with the Warriors but captained them to Bradford and then again in the last matches in the absence of usual skipper Graham Mossa. “It’s been great” he said, “I really enjoyed captaining the team on my first rugby tour and we played some great rugby. I hope I can play for many more years.”

Looking longer term the Warriors were very proud to be part of a Conference on integrated rugby that has led to the formation of a federation of club’s: Ability Rugby International. All 6 Nations were represented at the conference and the aim is to together promote full contact rugby opportunities for people with learning difficulties. The name reflects that we are trying to highlight people’s ability and all present were agreed about the importance of it being full contact rather than touch.
The Warriors of course have been a leading light in this concept and are credited with playing a mentoring role to the Bumble Bee barbarians in England and The Clan/TRI rugby in Scotland. The Bumbles in turn have developed a presentation which so far has led to teams forming in Halifax and Castleford (both of whom were at the conference), TRI rugby in Scotland is looking at setting up further teams following the success of the Clan. In Ireland the famous Sundays Well club are (through the Bumbles) using guidance the Warriors have written and the Warriors are in talks with Welsh rivals the Swansea Gladiators to see how the concept can be spread here.
Perhaps the most exciting development at the conference though was the participation of Fédération Française Sport Adapté from France who hope to hold talks with IRB President Bernard Lapasset. The conference was supported by the RFU and there are signs that they are finally behind the concept of full contact rugby for people with learning difficulties.
Gwilym Lewis and Neil Parker represented the Warriors at the conference and found it very positive. “We were impressed by the common thinking and speed of things” said Neil.
"In the Warriors we have always felt that whilst on the one hand we should try and be as normal a club as possible, getting on with things at a grass roots level, we also have a duty to try and forward this fantastic concept". Said Gwilym “it’s great to see it finally catching on and when we see things like advice we have given on websites in Ireland or being discussed in Italy it’s really exciting.”

The next stage for the Warriors will be to try and secure WRU backing for an exhibition match in Cardiff next November.

Minutes of the conference are set out below.

Reports and photos from all the matches can be found on this site.

MINUTES OF MEETING

Bingley, 9th March 2014

BumbleBees Barbarians RUFC – England
Mark Goodwin
Martino Corazza

Swansea Gladiators - Cymru
Stuart Jones
Tony Gemine
Michael Gemine

Llanelli Warriors RFC – Cymru
Gwilym Lewis
Neil Parker

Fédération Française Sport Adapté – France
Jérôme Pechon
Michel Ponchaut

Chivasso Rugby Onlus – Italia (pictured watching the match)
Enrico Colzani
Marilena Giuliacci
Andrea Pancotti

Halifax Magpies/ Halifax RUFC – England
Stuart Hill

Castleford RUFC – England
Stephen Ball
Kevin Nash

Trust Rugby International/The Clan – Scotland
Jamie Armstrong
Stephen Main

Sundays Well RFC – Ireland
Alan Craughwell
Conor Farrell
Raymund Dennehy
Participate Project - England
Anthony Waddington

1. Introductions, presentation of Clubs, history and activities

Swansea Gladiators

The Gladiators was formed in 1991 when a group of social service staff and a group of adults with learning difficulties met on a rough patch of ground to explore the possibilities of playing full contact rugby.
Disabled people who had been told all their lives “You cannot play rugby because of your disability”, were now told “You can play because of your ability”.

Rugby became a natural vehicle for championing the right people with learning disabilities to participate in a meaningful sporting experience along with their able-bodied friends.

We have vision and belief in social equality which can also make huge difference in the lives of so many people.

Even without support from WRU, recognition get through having partner organisations on board.

We have the support of rugby clubs form Watsonians in Scotland, Rathdrum RFC in Ireland, Worcester in England to the majority of rugby clubs in Swansea and the Neath valleys. We have no club house or ground we call our own, we have been given a home by Swansea Uplands RFC for the past 3 seasons, Gowerton RFC and Waunarlwydd RFC previously. We would like everyone to know that we appreciate their support and friendship, we could not exist without them.

We have started working with adult, and now we have a junior tag team for kids between 5-13, aimed to widen the offer and help the Senior team in the future.

Llanelli Warriors RFC

The Llanelli Warriors are a Challenge rugby side who include players with learning difficulties. The team was formed in 1995 to represent the Heol Goffa SAC, a day centre for people with learning difficulties. Some of the centre staff played rugby for a similar team in Swansea, the Swansea Gladiators, and challenged the centre to raise a team. So in the best traditions of Llanelli - Swansea rivalry the West Wales Warriors met the Swansea Harlequins (name changes came soon after).

The club celebrated its 10th season with a 3 match tour of New Zealand where they followed the Lions whilst winning their own matches including a 'test' match against the only similar team in New Zealand - The South Auckland Kiwis

Points of strength. Llanelli Warriors are a small stand alone club, at the moment we are not encouraging new sides close to us for obvious reasons.
We are partner with our local rugby community and we fix local schedule, with a lot of games through the season.
All the work is done on voluntary basis, with a lot of initiatives to keep getting people involved.

No support from the WRU.

Bumbles Rugby

The Bumbles are England’s first mixed ability team.

They were founded in 2009 by Anthony Brooke, a WEA student who wanted to play full-contact Rugby.
The local RFU (Hamish Pratt) has been crucial in addressing manager Mark Goodwin to the local Bradford and Bingley RFC, which provided pitches and logistic support.

The first idea was to create a club only for player with LD, but after Gwilym Lewis’ (Llanelli Warriors) advice, the team moved to a mixed ability model, recruiting facilitators.

Alongside, a WEA Inclusion in Rugby Class was formed, to promote equality and raise awareness about LD within local and rugby community.

The Bumbles delivered their educational presentation to several rugby Clubs, helping other mixed ability sides to set up in Yorkshire (Halifax and Castleford) and beyond (Aylesbury, Cork).

Points of strength: god partnership with local and national RFU (even though recent), good support from a national educational provider – WEA – and local services. Good support from Bradford and Bingley Club and wide network of partner organisations and associations.

The Bumbles are a standalone Club affiliated to the RFU, with a Committee which includes players, coaches, parents representatives.
From 2012 the Bumbles, thanks to the WEA, hosted a Grundtvig Assistant (ESF project) and started to develop a cross-European network to link together all the realities involved in mixed ability/integrated/unified/adapté rugby.

Importance of sharing good practices and link the rugby experience with lifelong learning, peer-education, in order to use this model not just to play rugby, but to talk about rights, equality and social inclusion.

Propose of hosting the first International Mixed Ability Tournament alongside the RWC here in England, in 2015.

Tri Scotland

Trust Rugby International started in Spain, in the Valencia region, as Jamie Armstrong volunteered in local rugby clubs.
There was no structured provision for Rugby for people with learning disabilities and their carers in Scotland, and Tri was set up with the mission to bring diverse spectrum of people together via rugby.

The project was proposed to Scottish NHS but was put out because of risks involved.
Tri decided to take advice from Llanelli Warriors and Bumbles, and they were able to set up a tester session using a grant, that was successful.

So an initial pilot project was developed in Ayrshire and Arran, we have been focusing on building and sustaining a group of adult players male and female, with and without learning disabilities.

Using Government and NHS funding, Tri develop 4 groups in central, east, west Scotland and in Glasgow, obtaining a very good support from local clubs as Kilmarnock.

Tri prefers to use the term “unified” rugby. Unified rugby is where players with a disability train and play in the same team as non-disabled players.
The purpose of the project is to promote and encourage an appreciation of equality, diversity and social inclusion by proactively supporting the personal development of certain individuals through participation in rugby.

Tri launched ‘The Clan’ with inaugural fixtures against the Llanelli Warriors and the Bumble Bees in the Triunions cup, (22nd June 2013, Kilmarnock Rugby Club), second edition will take place in 2014.

Fédération Française Sport Adapté

The situation was reformed after the II WW, with two main groups, one federation and a movement linked to Christian organisations. Houses and dedicated structures were open for children and adults with all disabilities.

Now, in France, we have 5 million people with disabilities.

Two big federations dealing with the ‘paralympic model’, the French Disabled Sports Federation (more physical, visual and auditory), and the FFSA (learning disabilities).

Numbers about FFSA: 114 leagues and departmental committees, 50,000 licensed, 150,000 practitioners, more than 50 sports, 23 championships in France, 2300 meetings organized by year, 100 training courses per year.

The French Federation of Adapted Sport (FFSA) has received delegation of the Ministry of Sports to organize, develop, coordinate and control the practice of physical and sporting activities for people with learning disabilities.

The mission is to provide to any person the opportunity to experience the passion for the sport of their choice in an environment dedicated to enjoyment, performance, safety and exercise of citizenship. To develop support for adapté sport (families, schools, associations, politicians, administrations, companies ...), with social objectives of maintaining good health, developing personal skills, and achieve a better social integration

In 2005 a new Disability Law promoted compulsory education for students with LD, giving them the freedom to chose any school they wanted to attend.

The FFSA operates throughout the country to promote the sport adapted to persons with intellectual or mental disabilities and continues to grow thanks to continuing its number of licensed clubs and progression. It is represented by a sports association in many institutions medico-social environment, as well as more ordinary sports clubs who choose to create an adapted sports section.

In rugby, they use more 7’s at the moment.

Pau (Section Paloise), plays every year the 7’s Dubai Tournament with a LD player.

They decided to have more close links with the rest of Europe, especially after having been contacted by Bumbles and Chivasso Rugby in December 2012.

19th September 2014, they will host a Bumbles Tour to play against a XV Selection, on the same day there will be the 1.st International conference about “Sport, handicap and social inclusion”.
First table about French policies to catch up with EU progresses and national situation, because at the moment they are doing integration but not inclusion.
Second table what is happening with the Clubs at national and departmental level.
The third table meeting will be at the presence of Bernard Lapasset (IRB president), showing the English (Bumbles) and Italian (Cron) experience, and will be about the European network.

20th September 2014, International 7’s Tournament “Daniel Dubus”, all delegations are welcome, free accommodation could be provided.

At this moment, sport adapté is quite small, but is taking the lead with the rugby section, signing a partnership with FFR to increase funding, opportunities and grassroots.

The deadline to confirm attendance is mid June, Martino can help with forms if needed.

Chivasso Rugby Onlus

Started in 2010 with specific aim to promote social inclusion through rugby.

Founded by a mix of former rugby teammates and professional educators interested in using rugby as an educational mean.

In Italy rugby is not a popular sport, even is increasing, so we need to fight against prejudices and stereotypes (violent sport, difficult rules, injuries…).

In Italy there is an integrated school system, and no special needs schools, so we can use rugby in mainstreams school, to allow young LD students to share educational space and experiences.

As recruiting players is a problem, we want to start using educational programme to get students to play, as rugby can be used as an outlet for emotional problems.

Not support at all from FIR, but trying to build a solid network of associations and organisations interested in sharing venues, spaces and aims (Coordown, AMA).

Good junior side, now we have three adult players with LD. Chivasso Council has allowed us to use the main stadium in the city centre and help partially with bills.

All job is done on voluntary basis, but we’re conscious that only being part of a strong international network we can achieve bigger goals in our country as well.

Great work of case-study, thanks to good links with national NHS which refer students/players, and thanks to a professional psychologist who can follow impact of rugby on most of cases. Great theoretical work especially due to the presence of professional educators involved in non-forma, informal education.

Castleford RUFC

Castleford traditionally has a Rugby League heritage, and children move in that direction. Rugby League teams wants the best players, so Castleford’s idea is to be open to all.

That’s why starting from the junior side, Castleford opened doors and promoted accessibility, trying to break down all sort of barriers, now they have 10 junior sides, 2 with girls and 1 ladies squad.

After the Bumbles presentation in 2013, they were inspired to promote inclusion and mixed ability rugby. But still leading to ideas how to create their own model, at their pace.

With a small grant from West Yorkshire Sport, they run sessions to include disabled players, and that’s how it started, aim is to promote not just rugby, but social skills and confidence.

Good links with core groups of service providers.

7 to 9 players turning up to training sessions.

Halifax Magpies

We are running Halifax Magpies less than one season.
The first contact was with the Bumbles, Stuart went to train with them, then a presentation and a game against the second team were organized (2012).

All the Club is on board, so the Club supports the mixed ability side in a constructive and consistent way, and see the Magpie as a good way to come back to local community.

The problem is with facilitators, struggling with numbers.

Good links with service providers.

RFU supported with coaches and a small grant from West Yorkshire Sport.

We want to be part of the Club, part of the rugby culture, and want more games.

Sundays Well RFC

Alan, who works for a service provider, read an article in Rugby World Magazine about Bumbles and wanted to re-create the idea, that was nearly 2 years ago.

They decided to follow mixed ability model, so contacted the Bumbles and the Bumbles alongside with WEA Inclusion in Rugby Class provided some guidance.

Munster Rugby was approached, which had concerns about feasibility and risks, but as the model is running in UK and Alan is following a boxing project for LD athletes, they decided to go for it no matter what.

Sundays Well, one of the oldest Irish rugby Club, shared Musgrave Park with Munster, and their president baked up all the way. They said the Club must be open for all.

Very good numbers, started only in January, weekly training sessions with 10-15 LD players, and U20 Sundays Well now playing as facilitators. The experience is open to other clubs to encourage new facilitators’ recruitment.

IRFU development officers said they would like to help, but the federation has decided to invest on touch or tag rugby for people with LD.
They raised some issues about risks, insurances.

Common denominator, it’s rugby, and it’s rugby for all.

2. Idea of a Federation of Clubs

Delegates have discussed the possibility of setting up a cross-European Federation of Mixed Ability/Integrated/Unified/Adapté Clubs.
Each country could use its own model, according to social and historical situation, what model fits the best.
But we can share good practices, ideas, support for organising international events, sponsors, and resources.

The Federation is important to speak with one voice, and to be recognised as a movement from the IRB, which is likely to attend the Saint Omer conference on 19th September 2014.

French delegation propose to sign a document all together in Saint Omer, next September 2014, to officially give birth to the Federation and elect representative.

Gwilym Lewis suggested setting up a shared web-platform, and use social media. Andrea Pancotti said he’s a professional web-designer and he can set up a Multilanguage platform, so that each country can post and submit resources in their own national language.

3. Advantages of a Federation

Anthony Waddington of Participate Projects, said how easier could be fundraising as a Federation, and he said he would help us through this process.
An unified voice could be the ace up our sleeve to make a deal with the IRB as well. The French delegation said they can use privileged contact with Bernard Lapasset to pledge our cause.

4. 2015 Event

The Bumbles proposed their plan for the 2015 Event, to be hosted in Yorkshire alongside with the IRB RWC 2015, taking advantage of the presence of media here to cover the RWC.

The suitable week could be 13-20 September 2015, to be confirmed.

Martino is working on an International bid to secure funds to host delegations for free and to organise the Event. All support and help will be appreciate.
Needs to match 12 different European countries to be involved with the project, focused on the rugby Tournament, and educational workshops, conferences (follw-up the Saint Omer’s one) and leisure moments.

5. Actions for the future

Jamie asked which actions we can personally undertake to give concrete meaning to our first international meeting.

Martino is going to write the Erasmus+ bid to organise 2015 Event, to include travel, hospitality, needs of participants and delegations.

Stuart from Swansea Gladiators is going to look at insurance side, alongside with Michel from FFSA who is currently working for Allianz.

Jérôme will target FFR in order to back our Event, ask their partnership and support, and organise the 2014 Tournament and conference targeting Bernard Lapasset IRB president.

Stephen from Castleford said they wants to develop and consolidate their team.

Stuart from Halifax is going to work on Magpies development, as they want more experience and games.

Italian delegation said they want to target other sport federations to attract them to rugby, and to recruit facilitators for 2014 and 2015 events. They can provide advice on European bid. They want to develop a model to work in schools.

Bumbles and WEA Inclusion in Rugby Class can work on a start-up pack to help other clubs to establish their mixed ability side. All resources will be easy-read and produced by players with LD.

Alan from Sundays Well can help with Erasmus+ bid, involving Cope-Foundation Ireland. They want to work on a educational presentation following the Bumbles’ model to involving players and facilitators. They’ll contact Munster Rugby representatives.

Stephen from Tri wants to develop a coach educational programme, to eliminate nervousness when coaching LD players in a full-contact rugby game.

Jamie commits to help finding funds and promote a coach education programme.

Gwilym is keen to follow the contents for the web platform helping Andrea in setting it up, moreover they want to help develop a team in Cardiff and having their presentation.

6. Federation’s name

After some talks, the same day, a name has been proposed by Swansea Gladiators and Sundays Well delegations.

ABILITY RUGBY INTERNATIONAL – PLAYING IS THE PRIZE (A.R.I.)

This name underlines the Spirit we share, can stress that we look at the abilities each player has, and our International aims, remaining open not just to Europe, but to further worldwide developments.

The name has to be confirmed, and a logo has to be found.

A web-domain abilityrugby.org is available.

Thanks to everyone!

Since this meeting Halifax Magpies have played (and beaten) the Bumbles.
A facebook page is imminent
A website is under construction: http://www.abilityrugby.org/wordpress