A NEW initiative backed by Worcester Warriors Rugby Club is being launched to help tackle the growing issue of childhood obesity.

Try Rugby has been developed and funded through a partnership between children’s charity, Wooden Spoon (Spoon), Premier Rugby and Sport England.

Almost a third (31.1 per cent) of 11-year-olds are now overweight or obese and the number is rising.

Spoon believes that one route to tackle this issue is through exercise and is championing rugby as the perfect sport to do this as it can be played by boys and girls of all shapes and sizes.

To this end, Premier Rugby, Sport England and Spoon have joined forces to create and deliver Try Rugby, which will benefit more than 26,000 children throughout England.

Steve Joslin, Worcester community development officer, said: “Try Rugby gives local schools a course in tag rugby that will benefit children and teachers and will enable rugby to still be played long after we have completed the coaching series.

“Tag rugby is a non-contact version of rugby and is a pretty straightforward sport that is lots of fun.

“Recent research shows that professional rugby players are seen as very positive role models which we hope will inspire the participating children – especially as Try Rugby coaches includes professional players from our club.”

England World Cup winner, Lawrence Dallaglio, is putting his weight behind the campaign and said: “In any rugby team you will see a vast difference in the heights, weights and overall sizes of players.

“Just look at England’s World Cup winning squad; Matt Dawson and Jonny Wilkinson are both about 5ft 10 and 13 stone, Steve Thompson is 6ft and was 18 stone and Martin Johnson is 6ft 7 and weighted 18 stone.

“They are all fit and very health conscious but there is nearly a foot difference in their heights and five stone difference in their weights.

“Consequently, rugby is the ideal vehicle to engage and motivate youngsters.

“They don’t need to feel self-conscious about their size as rugby needs every shape and size in a team.

“What’s more, playing rugby can engender a great many positive values such as respect, team work and having fun while exercising.”