Middlesbrough Rugby Club marks anniversary with drive for young players

The club wants to get children in the "football-mad area" to try rugby

A rugby club is marking its 150th anniversary with a drive to attract young players, particularly from diverse backgrounds.

Middlesbrough Rugby Club's rich history includes being Yorkshire champions twice and producing players like England international Rory Underwood.

The club wants to celebrate its history by growing its junior section.

It has been given a £10,000 Heritage Lottery Fund grant to attract new members from ethnic minority groups.

Former player Mike Wright said: "The grant is unique as we believe we're the first rugby club in the country to be awarded it and while it's not a massive amount of money, we're visiting 21 schools with our outreach team, to try and develop rugby and spread the word as we're a community club and we've got to get people to come and play for us.

"Middlesbrough is a football-mad area and trying to get kids interested in rugby is difficult."

Gohar Ishan said he was keen to get more youngsters from the Mosque involved in rugby

In the future the club wants to develop a junior academy and grow its junior teams as well as bringing more girls into the sport.

The club is not only looking for an injection of youth, it also wants to attract players and fans from more diverse backgrounds.

Gohar Ishan, from Middlesbrough's Central Mosque, said he would be accepting "the hand of friendship" to get more young people involved in the game.

"Rugby's not very well known in the community here in Middlesbrough and we're going to be bringing more participants to the club in Acklam," he said.

"In the past we've done a lot of activities with TS1 Tees Valley Sports. We did do rugby then but most people tend to go for football and cricket and more mainstream sports but there is an interest in rugby and kids are keen to get involved."