Clubs complete the ‘Walk to the Rugby World Cup’

Back in January, Ulster Rugby set the clubs of the Province a challenge to ‘Walk to the Rugby World Cup'! The idea was to get the members of the clubs to work together to achieve one goal, a goal that would benefit their health and wellbeing as well as encouraging them to socialise along the way. The 2019 Rugby World Cup Final will be held in the Nissan Stadium, Yokohama, Japan, which is 5,880 miles, or 12.2 million steps, from the Kingspan Stadium, Belfast. From January to September clubs Ophir, Ballynahinch, Ards, Rainey, Inishowen, Banbridge, Portadown, Malone, and Lurgan, joined together with Sparky, Include Youth and the staff of the Ulster Branch to walk to Japan. At the clubs, parents walked around the pitch while their children were training, mini rugby players had their own walking groups, members arranged to meet and walk together, youth groups took to the Mournes, and social media pages were set up to encourage and motivate everyone along the way. Everyone submitted their steps to the Branch each month and the grand total by the end of September was a staggering 12,259,354 steps! Congratulations and thank you to all those who took part in achieving this fantastic target. This project would not have been possible without the continued support of the Public Health Agency, and all programmes are aligned to Ulster Rugby’s Health and Wellbeing Strategy – Rugby at the Heart of the Community.