2023 European Championship Legacy Programme
As part of the 2023 European Championship and beyond, we aim to deliver a legacy programme that drives engagement and awareness of wheelchair rugby, and builds and strengthens local and national partnerships, which enables the consistent long term growth of wheelchair rugby in Wales.
The Welsh Open: A first for wheelchair rugby
Sponsored by Disability Sport Wales, we were thrilled to roll out the first-ever wheelchair rugby Welsh Open at the Parasport Festival, Swansea, back in August 2022.
Four clubs competed in the WR5s format– with Newport Dragons and Ospreys representing South Wales, RGC representing North Wales and from England the Tiger Seals, who were made up of a combination of players from Help 4 Heroes and Leicester Tigers.
The final was between RGC and Tiger Seals where RGC grabbed the title of Welsh Open champions.
The Welsh Open will run again next year as part of the Para Sport Festival. Read more about the event here.
Community engagement
We continue to collaborate with pro rugby and wheelchair rugby clubs through the pro-club community teams and WRU staff, engaging with community activities whilst raising the profile of the 2023 European Championship.
The Welsh Rugby Union and Great Britain Wheelchair Rugby have joined forces on a fantastic school programme. The programme aims to drive awareness and engagement with wheelchair rugby and strengthen local and national partnerships to enable the consistent long-term growth of the sport in Wales.
The WRU Digital online learning platform uses inspirational, wheelchair rugby-based resources to make the six areas of learning fun and engaging for all pupils. These resources are supported by 110 WRU hub officers who are trained in L1 to deliver fun and physical wheelchair rugby sessions to schools.
So far, the programme has led to 3000 pupils having been engaged in wheelchair rugby. You can read more about this important work here.
The ANI Group is a collaboration of companies striving to raise awareness of inclusivity in the workplace.
As part of the European Championship legacy, the group is working on an incredible ‘City4All’ project aiming to make Cardiff as accessible as possible.
As one of our partners, the group's aim is to bring together businesses, the public sector and local communities as part of the project which will be rolled out in Cardiff as the pioneering city of the City4All model.
The programme primarily consists of two parts:
Employability Skills Programme
To help increase every child’s chance of employment; the project offers a toolkit containing employability knowledge, videos, and skills development as part of the free ‘World of Work’ platform.
Accessibility training
The ANI Group also offers free awareness training to businesses and organisations, where employees will gain valuable skills in accessible customer service, marketing, and public spaces.
The City4All project aims to help Cardiff become a more inclusive, accessible space – for the championship and beyond.
Find out more here.