Thanet Wanderers Rugby Club have won praise from the top for their lockdown website.

The club wanted to keep people engaged during the height of the Covid-19 restrictions and quickly built a website which included challenges, competitions and guidance.

Cary Wright, head of the club’s schools and community programme, described the website as a tremendous success and they got some big names in rugby involved too.

RFU chief exec Bill Sweeney and World Cup winner Steve Thompson were among those who helped support after agreeing to judge results on the club’s rugby activity website.

The club’s schools and community programme was put in place to engage, involve and provide opportunities for the children from local schools and members of the community. The Coronavirus restrictions meant that couldn’t continue in the same way and so eggchase.co.uk was established.

It provides links for activities, weekly video challenges and competitions.

Mr Wright said: “The website was a tremendous success and helped many people remain involved during isolation.

“We had such a great response and with over 600 (competition) entries we knew we had to enrol a distinguished judging panel and I was absolutely delighted when five out of five requests were answered positively. This shows the calibre of people involved in our sport and community.”

Also involved was women’s World Cup winner and Kent rugby star Rachael Burford, Bob Smith, the general manager of London Array - who fund the club’s community programme - and RFU development officer Mark Finnis.

Visitors to the website were asked to contribute their opinions to comments from leading lights in the sport, with Kloe Parker’s response to rugby’s core values of teamwork, respect, enjoyment, discipline and sportsmanship being picked out by Mr Sweeney.

Archie Hussey, Giotto Welsh and Reece Merrifield were also recognised for their contributions as was the Dane Court Grammar School, who won a set of 20 pairs of rugby shorts and socks, provided by Akuma Sports. St George’s Primary School were awarded a set of training balls provided by Roe Timber Frame.

Mr Sweeney said: “I’d like to thank Cary for getting in touch and offer congratulations on the website and competition, a great idea to keep young players engaged in the game over this difficult period.

“Ambition, hard work, attitude and motivation when combined enables you to achieve anything. Eddie (Jones) often talks about the fact that we know what to do and how, but the why (reason) and want (motivation) are critical.”

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