2022 Dallaglio RugbyWorks Awards
On Wednesday 29th June we held our annual Dallaglio RugbyWorks Awards virtually from the House of Sport – London. This year's awards were hosted by our founder Lawrence Dallaglio and our CEO Zenna Hopson with RugbyWorks alumni Jose joining with live social media updates.
Thank you to everyone that tuned into our virtual awards. If you missed out, you can rewatch the awards on our YouTube channel.
“These awards acknowledge and celebrate the fantastic young people, amazing teachers, inspirational coaches and outstanding supporters who make Dallaglio RugbyWorks what it is.
As we hopefully leave the pandemic behind, we also leave a wave of increased disadvantage for the most vulnerable young people in the UK. Since the pandemic, general school absence has risen from 5% to 13%. 100,000 children have simply been lost to education and authorities do not know where they are. First time fixed-term exclusions are estimated to be up by 50% from 2019. This means our work and our partnerships with schools and Alternative Provision are needed now more than ever.
It is a real joy to celebrate the progress and success of our young people and to highlight the incredible journeys they have come on. These awards allow us to showcase their remarkable progress as well as acknowledge and value the vital people that are part of their journey. Without our supporters, we would not be able to deliver our programme, so it gives me great pleasure to be able to thank them as well. ”
This year there were five categories included in our awards. Congratulations to all those nominated and shortlisted.
The 5 Dallaglio RugbyWorks Champions
The RugbyWorks Champion award which recognises Young People who have stood out this year and have made significant personal development during their time with Dallaglio RugbyWorks. They may have never picked up a rugby ball before, or have grown with the sport, but all of them have embraced game and the values that come with it.
Frankie Mullins – Wales
Frankie has been described by her coach as hard working and engaging. She has gone above and beyond to grow into a role model for the rest of the group. In fact, she has even offered to work with Dallaglio Rugbyworks to improve the Player Profiles Pilot app. She has continually been engaged in completing levels, winning more prizes than the rest of the young people in the pilot combined. She has truly shown full dedication to self-improvement and leadership.
DJ Wharmby – North-West
DJ has been described by his coach as a hardworking and a positive role model. He loves to give new things a go and encourages others in his group to do the same. He has been able to develop into an incredible leader that has made a great positive change.
Jake Chennells – Wales
Jake has been described by his coach as energetic and confident. Not only does he participate in every drill and activity, but he excels in them, having significantly improved his skills. He is constantly wanting to learn something new and shown himself to be a true leader.
Grace Dieu Loponda – London
Grace has been described by his coach as determined and energetic. He loves to lead activities and is competitive, even motivating classmates during the sessions. He is also creative with the coaches in sharing ideas for new activities and games to play.
Livvie Cleaver – Wales
Livvie has been described by her coach as an exceptional leader. She has developed into an incredibly skilful and knowledgeable rugby player, even showing the other girls in the group how to do several drills and activities. She has truly developed into a confident young girl that has become a leader by encouraging others and helping to set up drills for the coaches.
Teacher of the Year
Teachers are a vital part of our delivery within schools, PRU’s and other educational establishments. We could not run the programme so effectively without the buy in and support from the teachers in the school.
Matthew Brotherton
Matthew has been an incredibly supportive and organised teacher. He has consistently gone above and beyond to ensure that the sessions run smoothly and effectively. He encourages young people to participate in these sessions, wanting all the young people to take advantage of their opportunity to benefit from sport. He has been a fantastic supporter of the program and has helped the sessions run without error by managing the program from the school’s side.
Coach of the Year
This award is to recognise the people in our delivery team who go above and beyond to make the programme exactly what it is. They work hard on the ground every day to help change these young people’s live and Dallaglio RugbyWorks would not be the same without them.
Brittany Lewis
Brittany been thrown in the deep end since starting as a part time coach, as she quickly progressed to taken on a variety of different projects and tasks. She has helped develop our specific girls only offer in Wales, she has led sessions in Welsh speaking schools, and has also revitalised our Instagram and twitter profile and made it a lot easier for supporters and funders to understand the work that is taking place day-day, none of this was in her original job description and credit must go to her for a lot of the great work being done in Wales this academic year.
Partner of the Year
This award recognises an organisation who supports us to do the work that we do with young people whether that be through offering pro-bono support, financially supporting the programme, or providing event support.
Mentzendorff
Mentzendorff have been a long standing supporter of Dallaglio RugbyWorks and our events in particular could not run without them. They provide support whenever we need it, no questions asked which means we can put even more resource directly into the programme and our young people.
Supporter of the Year
This award recognises the contribution of our supporters who help us to continue doing what we do for young people like Frankie, by helping us to fundraise and volunteering their time. We’ve worked with some incredible people this year, who have supported our events, worked on pro bono projects, ran career taster days, and so much more.
Richard Freeman
Richard has gone above and beyond for RugbyWorks this year, especially in the form of shaping our events. Not only does he attend and promote every event without fail from Six Nations Lunch to Cycle Slam but he has also supported Dallaglio RugbyWorks’ wider event portfolio by chairing our Development Board. We can tell that Richard really does cares about the outcomes for our young people, which is why he provides so much support.
Thank you to everyone that tuned into our virtual awards. If you missed out, you can rewatch the awards on our YouTube channel.
Thank you also to John Zafar, Keir Stephenson, and Zainab Alema, who helped judge the awards and choose our winners, 73Media for hosting and filming the awards, and everyone who donated a prize for our worthy winners.
