Rugby Heritage Cup 2023: 48 schools from 20 nations in competition

Rugby Heritage Cup Pontlevoy 2023

In celebration of the 200th anniversary of school rugby, during the summer of 2023, Pontlevoy in France will welcome 700 children from 5 continents and 48 schools for the Rugby Heritage Cup Pontlevoy 2023. 

The children will gather from 2-7 September with ‘one heart, one soul’ around rugby and its values for an historic festival of sport on the grounds of Pontlevoy Abbey, a listed monument dating from 1034. 

Among them will be children from the English town of Rugby – a great tribute to those that created a sport in their schoolyard without suspecting that it would be a source of inspiration and thrill for so many!

Thierry Chenet, president of the Pontlevoy Heritage Association, commented: "What a craze for this first school rugby tournament! Schools from all over the world will unite around the same passion. Young girls from Tonga, Madagascar, India, Japan, Argentina, and various European countries will be there! What a proud moment it will be to experience the exhilaration of these young people, and to support them to reach for their dreams! See you soon in Pontlevoy; we are looking forward to it!”

Representing India in the tournament is Kolkata's Don Bosco Ashalayam, Howrah.

The Rugby Heritage Cup has been billed as an opportunity to give young people a sense of responsibility, to teach them to live together, to respect each other and to discover each other's cultures and traditions.

Thierry Chenet further noted: "Sport is a great opportunity to get together, but we want to go even further! The Centre-Val de Loire Region is very committed to education, just like us in Pontlevoy. Our tournament is an event for children and by children, in a spirit of respect, exchange and sharing against a backdrop of sporting competition.”

Based on this founding principle, five departments have been created to cover some of the needs required to organise a sports event of this scale: "Welcome", "Abbey most beautiful", "Shop", "Communication" and "Eco-responsibility".

François Roche-Bayard, co-organiser of the Rugby Heritage Cup, added: "These departments provide practical work that can be done in certain subjects in class. Thinking about a theme, putting it into practice, achieving a result after sometimes trying several times... It's learning, it's the best way to learn, understand, trust, and grow! This is the DNA of our tournament!

“And at the Rugby Heritage Cup, the children will also be the guarantors of good behaviour since they will set up the rules to be respected by the 700 children attending, providing a foundation for coexistence and respect for one another and for each other’s culture.

"It is just as important for us that the Rugby Heritage Cup is a success on the sporting level as on the human level, so we have made the children responsible for drafting the code of conduct that will be shared and implemented for the tournament. It is essential to share a common code that is mindful of all cultures and traditions.

“Six schools were consulted: Rugby School in England, Montemar in Chile, Iona in Australia, Shamas in Kenya, Ashalayam in India, and Pontlevoy in France. The process started in September and all that remains is to integrate the essays received. Once the schools have approved the blend, the booklet, with an introduction by François Piennaar, will be submitted to UNESCO for validation. As a small token of appreciation, the booklet will adopt the format of the iconic book of the first rugby rules, written by the pupils in 1823.”