School unveil new rugby shirts at Twickenham

A young rugby fan from Quintin Kynaston School in St John’s Wood got the experience of a lifetime when they unveiled their school’s new Canterbury rugby shirt in front of thousands at Twickenham ahead of England’s RBS 6 Nations clash with Italy.

The opportunity came as part of the CBRE All Schools programme, launched in 2012 by the Rugby Football Union, which aims to get more state secondary schools playing rugby and encourage students to join local clubs.

Omar Janudi was one of 100 students from across England who took to the pitch before kick-off, unveiling their school’s newly designed shirts ahead of the national anthems.

The 14-year-old admitted the whole day – which also saw him meet CBRE All Schools Ambassador and England international Billy Vunipola, line up on the pitch for the anthems and then sit in the crowd afterwards for the action – would live long in the memory.

“I was so excited, it was a really good experience, I can’t really explain it,” said Omar, who was joined by his teacher Matthew Bush.

“There were four of us that helped to design the shirt, we put our school name in the corner and we did the colours from the communities in our school on the sleeve.

“My friend suggested to me to do that and we agreed to do it to show everyone this is our school and our community.”

Each shirt was individually designed by the school children at Canterbury kit design workshops last year.

Pupils worked with Canterbury to learn about the core values of rugby, the pride associated with the shirt and the importance of colours, logos and emblems.

England and Saracens number eight Vunipola was also on hand at the kit unveil to share his experience of what it means to represent England, the importance of the shirt and take centre stage at Twickenham on match day.

“It’s great to see more state secondary schools getting involved in rugby through the CBRE All Schools programme,” he said.

“The atmosphere in Twickenham on match day is very special and it’s fantastic that the students got to experience it first-hand. Who knows, maybe one of them will be playing for England one day!”

Chris Stephenson, CEO of Canterbury, added: “This is our fourth year as Official Partner of the All Schools programme – something we are extremely proud to be part of.

“The students did their schools proud by wearing a shirt they designed at such a huge game. Hopefully some special memories were made.”

*CBRE All Schools supported by Canterbury is one of the RFU’s key legacy programmes, set up to increase the number of state secondary schools playing rugby union in England. Visit englandrugby.com/allschools to find out more.