Thanet Wanderers Rugby Club’s special educational needs and disabilities Lions section are celebrating a landmark achievement in their short history.

What started two years ago as a conversation between club development director Andy Bull and Broadstairs-based Bradstow School sports master Jimmy Green over a pint in the clubhouse culminated in Lions’ participation in last month’s Wooden Spoon International Tag Festival in Coventry - the SEND section’s first-ever competitive event.

Thanet’s SEND players face daily challenges with the likes of attention deficit hyperactive disorder, autism, opposition defiant disorder, global delay, epilepsy and cerebral palsy the conditions they live with that can make new and different experiences - such as travelling away from home for a weekend’s rugby - daunting.

However, in just two years the club have instilled enough confidence in their youngsters that they could take 40 kids, parents and coaches to Broadstreet Rugby Club and excel on the pitch, too, winning four games out of six and losing just one.

The club’s SEND section ranges from ages six to 22 and is particularly close to Andy’s heart, as he reflected on how he got involved.

“It was back in 2022 that Jimmy Green and I sat in the Thanet Wanderers clubhouse imagining what it would be like to add a SEND element to the club’s schools and community programme,” he said.

“My interest was due to having a 17-year-old son, Joshua, with Down Syndrome and the lack of sporting opportunities that were available locally.

“Jimmy’s enthusiasm was from a more professional setting as he is a sports master at The Bradstow School, a local SEND school that caters for the more challenging kids.

“Wooden Spoon, the rugby charity for children, very quickly became involved as did Inclusive Sport, an organisation who deliver sports to local children with SEND.

“Money was raised through Sport England, specialist equipment was purchased and a crew of coaches assembled from both inside and outside of the club. Leading the team was Mario Garcia, the under-7s coach at the club who immediately struck up the perfect rapport with the younger ones.

“Multiple eight-week programmes were held, with numbers reaching 25-plus on a Tuesday evening. Easter and summer programmes were run and it became obvious there was very much a need for this.”

Everything was progressing nicely but one important ingredient was missing - competition.

Wanderers’ director of community rugby, Vicky Flower, is an accomplished player and has played representative rugby for the Wooden Spoon ladies vets team. During various events and matches she has attended, the topic of SEND rugby has been raised and she found out about the Wooden Spoon International Tag Festival being held on June 22 in Coventry.

“I received an invite from Matt Mitchell, the Spooner who was organising the event,” Andy
said.

“And just like that we moved from being a Tuesday night SEND programme to a fully-fledged competitive part of Thanet Wanderers.

“The challenge was, then, how do we prepare the kids for the event and how do we get 40 children, parents and coaches there and try not to cost them a penny?

“The club very quickly stepped in and a fundraising lunch was organised and the money raised pretty much filled half the empty bucket. Wooden Spoon then, incredibly generously, helped every club with their travelling and accommodation expenses.

“The bucket was starting to look fuller and then the Broadstairs-based CT10 Parochial Charity heard about the tournament and topped the bucket up pretty much to the brim.

“Some tough negotiations with kit suppliers, hotels and coach companies ensued and at the beginning of June we were all booked and ready to go.

“To many of the kids who attend our sessions, playing as a team is a very new experience and for some the challenge of even stepping into the clubhouse can be a very difficult thing, so their preparation for the tournament had to be carefully managed.”

With that in mind, special squad sessions were arranged for those who chose to go to the tournament, where the numbers were lower allowing a greater coach-to-child ratio.

Playing kit started to arrive, hoodies were produced and fun games were organised for the bus journey. When the big day arrived, Friday June 21, pre-tour pizza at the clubhouse helped calm the butterflies while the ceremonial handing out of the kit, to captains Rory Appleton and Sophia Kelly, for the under-15s, and Ashley Cloake, for the over-15s, got everyone in the mood.

A packed coach then set off and arrived in Coventry just before 10pm.

“Festival day started with a hearty breakfast, followed by a 20-minute drive to Broadstreet Rugby Club, a very impressive ground with a wonderful clubhouse and just as wonderful a welcome,” Andy recalled.

When the competitive action began each team played three matches of eight minutes per half with a two-minute break. For those players who needed extra support, a coach was allowed on the field.

Being the first competitive games that the Lions had ever taken part in, emotions were high - not only among the squad but many of the parents and coaches with tears of pride when yet another player scored their debut try.

The day was to become even more memorable for the over-15s, however, who, being low on players, were helped out by other clubs - and some star quality.

“The over-15s were short of numbers for the day but were lent players by the larger squads,” Andy explained.

“We had one boy join us whose mother was born in Thanet and he decided to play with us for the rest of the tournament and, in our last match, still a couple of players short, I managed to talk the star guest of the day, Jodie Ounsley, the former Sale Sharks and Exeter Chiefs player, to don a Wanderers shirt and play alongside the boys.

“Joined by two of the mums it proved to be the biggest victory of the day. As a thank-you, we presented the shirt to Jodie who has promised to have it framed and hung on her wall.”

At presentation time each player and coach was given a Tagfest medal and each team a Wooden Spoon Tagfest trophy.

The music then started, the barbecue was fired up and an evening of dancing, eating, singing and face-painting was enjoyed by all before returning to the hotel for 9.30pm.

The next day the Lions arrived back at the club at around 4pm. One of the jobs for many parents that evening was to get on with washing the players’ shirts as the kids wanted to wear them to school on the Monday - a reminder of a milestone moment in so many of their and their families’ lives.

“We watched our little girl start her rugby journey two years ago with Thanet Wanderers when she couldn’t catch a ball,” said Paula, mother of Summa Morgan.

“Two years later she was given the opportunity to play in her first tournament and went and got a try. That memory will live with us forever and is something we never dreamed she could achieve.”

Other parents were just as positive. Amy, mother of Theo Webb, said: “Theo is very proud of himself and teammates and grateful for all the coaches’ amazing love and support to show him his true potential and believing in him.”

Broden Naylor-Hands and his mum Tanya enjoyed “an amazing opportunity”.

“Being in a setting where there would be no judgement over diversity enabled our children to flourish and show their full potential alongside their teammates,” Tanya said.

“It was a truly incredible weekend, where all of our children were given the full rugby tournament experience,” said Mike, father of Rory Appleton.

“The highlight for Rory was getting to do all of this with his teammates that he now calls his friends.”

Meggy and Hattie Waller were born two months early, weighed just 3lb and only learnt to speak during the first Covid lockdown.

“For a while we were told that they may have cerebral palsy, just to be told after numerous tests that they were actually both really clumsy,” said mum Jackie.

“If I was told 13 years ago that those tiny babies would be part of an international rugby tour I would never, ever have believed it.”

The best testimony probably came from Ashley Cloake and mum Lyn.

“The weekend was heartmelting for me as a parent, seeing my son being part of a team that he is accepted in and excels at,” Lyn said.

“This is my family,” Ashley added. “I’m the same as everyone and nobody was looking funny at me. It’s the most amazing feeling and best day of my life. I don’t want it to end - it beat Disney, mum!”

So, mission accomplished for Andy but he hopes this is just the start with Wanderers looking to expand their SEND programme so Lions can take four sides to next year’s event.

“Watching over 200 children and young adults participate in a rugby festival was joyous to see and even more so because we had a small part in making it possible,” he said.

“Never did I think two years ago over that pint that it would culminate in something as magical as this.

“It will not be long before the Tuesday night sessions will move to Sunday mornings so the SEND players are training alongside their fellow club members on an equal footing - as important a part of the club as anyone else, as capable of scoring a try or grabbing a tag as any other player in the club.”

Email community@thanetwanderers.co.uk for more details if you think your child would like to give tag rugby a try and they have a special educational need.