Birmingham and Solihull Hornets player Tom Nixon hopes that participation rates in rugby will increase after England reaching the World Cup final in Japan.
The second rower thinks that this world cup and England’s performances in particular have been a great advert for people who are new to watching rugby.
“Minus the postponements, the tournament has been fantastic to watch, even if you don’t usually enjoy watching rugby,” he said.
Nixon has played for Birmingham and Solihull rugby club for three years and this season has broke into the reserves side.
“As soon as I played my first reserves game, I could instantly recognise the improvement in standard I was playing,” Nixon said.
However, with only ten other teams in the league The Hornets play in, Nixon wants there to be more people getting involved in rugby.
Nixon said: “I feel that having only eleven teams in our league isn’t enough. This means that games are spread out across this season. I want to be playing Rugby every weekend.
“Hopefully from people watching the tournament and seeing England reach the final it may have the same effect as the Olympic games did in 2012 where participation rates rocketed after the success of Team GB,” he said.
The twenty-year-old did also recognise the increase in participation in rugby from when he first started playing ten years ago.
“Since I started rugby at the age of ten, I have seen the sport increase in popularity almost every season. The league’s I was playing in would usually have a team or two added every two/three seasons.
“Hopefully this continues to happen so we’re getting to play rugby just as consistently as other sports like football,” he said.
England will be taking on South Africa in the World Cup final Saturday morning.
Harvey Lawrence's Sport Blog 