The Home of Grassroots Rugby — Why We Created This Channel

Every weekend across the United Kingdom something special happens on grassroots rugby pitches.

Floodlights flicker on as the evenings draw in. Boots hit changing room floors. Tape gets wrapped around wrists. Teammates gather, friends arrive on the touchline and the clubhouse slowly fills with that familiar pre-match buzz.

For eighty minutes, across thousands of pitches, the amateur game produces moments that are every bit as thrilling as anything you will see on television.

A winger stepping three defenders and finishing in the corner. A forward crashing over from close range after fifteen phases. A last-minute try that sends the touchline into absolute chaos.

These are the moments that make grassroots rugby so special.

But the reality is that most of those moments never travel beyond the pitch where they happened. Unless someone happened to capture it on their phone, that incredible try, that moment of brilliance, that unforgettable piece of skill is often only seen by the handful of people standing around the touchline.

And that is exactly why we created Grassroots Rugby Meat Pies.

For years I have played and watched amateur rugby and thought the same thing again and again: the grassroots game is packed with quality, packed with personality and packed with incredible moments — yet very little of it ever gets the visibility it deserves.

Across England, Wales and Scotland there are thousands of rugby clubs and hundreds of thousands of players pulling on their club shirt every weekend. Those players are producing brilliant rugby week after week. The passion is there. The commitment is there. The community is stronger than ever.

What has been missing is a single place where those moments can be shared and celebrated properly. That is the gap we wanted to fill. The vision behind Grassroots Rugby Meat Pies is simple: to create one social media platform dedicated entirely to showcasing the very best of grassroots rugby. A place where the community can send in their biggest moments. A place where clubs can showcase their players. A place where the amateur game finally has a stage. Because the truth is, grassroots rugby has something incredibly powerful that the professional game often struggles to replicate — genuine community.

Amateur rugby clubs are far more than sports teams. They are social hubs. They are gathering points for entire communities. They are places where friendships are built over decades and where generations of players wear the same club colours.

You see it every weekend. The volunteers marking out the pitch early in the morning. The coaches giving up evenings to train the next generation. The supporters standing in the cold with a coffee or a pint cheering their team on. There is a unique spirit in grassroots rugby that anyone who has been part of the game understands instantly.

That spirit deserves to be celebrated.

Grassroots Rugby Meat Pies has been created to do exactly that, to shine a light on the players, the clubs and the moments that make amateur rugby so brilliant.

At the heart of the channel will be a simple idea: Try of the Week.

Every week players and clubs will be able to send in their best tries from grassroots rugby. The most exciting moments will be featured across the channel and the community will get involved in voting for their favourites. It keeps things simple. It keeps things competitive and it gives every club, player and supporter a reason to get involved. The aim is to create something that the entire grassroots rugby community can rally behind.

To launch the channel properly we wanted to bring some real energy and excitement to the start of the journey. That is why we are launching with two big competitions designed to get clubs across the country involved from day one.

The first is our Try of the Season competition, where players can submit the best try they have scored this season for the chance to win some fantastic prizes.

The second is our Club Activation Award, where one grassroots rugby club will win a full kit and equipment package for their team thanks to our brilliant partners.

These competitions are about more than prizes. They are about creating momentum. They are about getting the community engaged. They are about giving grassroots rugby the platform it deserves.

Most importantly, this channel is not about us. It is about the grassroots rugby community itself.

• The players who produce the moments.

• The clubs who keep the game alive.

• The supporters who capture the magic from the touchline.

• We are simply creating the stage.

• The community will create the content.

Our ambition is that over time this becomes the home of grassroots rugby content — the place people go to watch the best tries, discover clubs across the country and celebrate the amateur game.

Because some of the most exciting moments in rugby are not happening in packed stadiums.

They are happening on community pitches every single weekend.

They just need somewhere to be seen.

And that is what this channel is all about.

Welcome to the home of grassroots rugby.

By Bob Barnes