| When Cardiff Blues' southern hemisphere stars Ben Blair (New Zealand) and Maama Molitika (Tonga), along with Welsh Sports Minister Rhodri Glyn Thomas and WRU Head of Rugby Development Nigel Davies, met primary schoolchildren from Cardiff towards the end of April as they began a legacy programme aimed at ensuring that the inaugural IRB Junior World Championship, to be hosted in Wales throughout June 2008, will leave a lasting impression on the population.
Five match days will take place throughout June at Cardiff Arms Park, Newport's Rodney Parade, the Liberty Stadium in Swansea and The Racecourse in Wrexham ensuring top class rugby action for families and rugby fans across Wales and children, coaches and clubs will be beneficiaries of a WRU-devised legacy programme to ensure the tournament leaves a lasting impact for Wales on many levels.
Over 3,000 schoolchildren around Wales will be encouraged to 'adopt a nation', learning about the language, culture and heritage of one of the sixteen participating countries in an initiative which will allow children to meet with the international players staying, training and playing in their local area. They will also be given free match tickets to watch their 'adopted nation' in action and have a chance to win further prizes.
Other beneficiaries of the legacy programme will include community and elite coaches, who will be able to tap the brains of the international coaches coming to Wales, via open training sessions and an elite coaching forum in each region.
Fifteen rugby clubs in Wales have been specifically chosen as 'host' clubs for the international teams. They will benefit on two fronts; they will have the chance to keep a range of Rhino training equipment and Webb Ellis balls used by the teams once the teams leave Wales; they will also act as a link between the elite international side and the local community. The launch of the community legacy programme, on April 17th 2008, saw Ben Blair and Maama Molitika giving primary schoolchildren a taste of their native country with a question and answer session.
Ben Blair reached two IRB U21 World Championship with New Zealand, beating South Africa to win the 2000 tournament and both New Zealand and Tonga will be based within the Blues region for the duration of the June tournament, playing their matches at Cardiff Arms Park along with Ireland and Argentina who make up Pool A. The launch took place at Glamorgan Wanderers RFC, who will host Ireland for the Pool stages of the forthcoming tournament.
The Welsh Assembly Government has provided financial support to the WRU to bring the Championship to Wales, along with UK Sport, the IRB and commercial partners.
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