WRU District A Celebration Dinner -
By Ryan Robinson - Dragons Community Ambassador
To say thank you for their hard work throughout the 2015/16 season, Newport Gwent Dragons organised for myself and four of my fellow Community Ambassadors to be amongst the representatives for the Region at the WRU District A Rugby Celebration Dinner 2016 held at Rodney Parade.
The Community Ambassadors are responsible for supporting numerous different community activities on a match day. We were treated to an invite to the dinner which provided Newport Gwent Dragons with a perfect opportunity to commemorate the tremendous contributions of the Ambassadors throughout the past year.
On a match day Ambassadors are tasked with the smooth running of the community activities so that everybody can enjoy a really inspiring match day experience. The addition of the new We Fight Any Claim Family Zone may have provided any team with a new upheaval, but the team of community Ambassadors took it in their stride to bring fun and games for the young supporters to enjoy. Under the supervision of Community Manager Mr. Mike Sage, the team run sports including Golf, Cricket, Rugby and numerous other activities to enhance the match day engagement.
Another role for the Ambassadors is to support Development Officer Janice Chappell in managing the selected Guard of Honour teams before and during the match. The Guard of Honour are expected to arrive two hours before kick-off and it is primarily the Ambassadors’ role to ensure they know where to meet. From here, they are welcomed by two Dragons’ players and are allowed to ask a few questions to them to enable their development into rugby players.
Then, it is on to the We Fight Any Claim Family Zone to participate in the activities before meeting up before the game with the Guard of Honour to facilitate access into the stadium and onto the pitch. Again, it is the role of the Ambassadors to make a smooth transition to and from the Family Zone.
Once inside the stadium, the Guard of Honour watches the Dragons warm-up and then it is onto the field to hopefully cheer the Dragons’ to success. From this, the children along with coaches are invited to watch the game and again, it falls to the Ambassadors to see the group make their way to their seats safely and efficiently as to conclude a fantastic community day at the Newport Gwent Dragons.
Complementing their expertise on match day, Ambassadors are also involved with the running of the Dragons skills camps throughout the year. Based primarily behind the scenes, they are tasked with making the skills camps fun and enjoyable as-well as assisting Mike Sage and Janice Chappell in demonstrations the activities throughout the day to ensure all the children develop their skills with the Newport Gwent Dragons.
Mike Sage, singing the praises of the Ambassadors said, “It is clear that without the hard work and dedication of the Community Ambassadors, the general running of the community activities on match days would be extremely difficult and only goes to highlight their paramount importance to the Newport Gwent Dragons Community team. We are extremely grateful to be supported so expertly from our volunteers who work tirelessly free of charge throughout the season and an invite to the WRU District A Rugby Celebration Dinner 2016 seemed a fitting way to reward them for all their hard work throughout the 2015/16 season”.
The sell-out evening, hosted by WRU Rugby Manager Mr Greg Woods, was a night enjoyed by all guests and provided the WRU with an opportunity to commemorate the achievements of the past season. This included awards for all aspects of rugby, from player of the year all the way to volunteer of the year and provided all teams within District A to enjoy the night together after a gruelling season which ran to the wire across all divisions within the district.
As an extra incentive for all guests, they were all treated to a guest speaker who this year was Wales and Lions legend Mr Tom David. Having played all his club games within Wales, Tom was an excellent role model to speak to the aspiring rugby players within the crowd as to what it takes to make it at the top level and his commitment and dedication to the game can inspire everyone and goes to show what can happen if you put the time and effort into making it as a professional.
I would like to finish by paying a special thanks to Molson Coors and Worthington’s for sponsoring the event as without the backing of sponsors, events like these would not be possible and would therefore not permit Newport Gwent Dragons to say a big thank you for their contributions throughout the season.
