Mark Pawsey MP was joined on the Rugby field by his son Will on Sunday the 13th March in a game between the Commons & Lords Rugby team and the Scottish Parliament & St Andrews side.
The mid morning game preceded the England versus Scotland six nations match and similar to the professionals later on in the day the English team proved victorious against their Scottish counterparts!
Mark said:
“This was the first time that I had played with my son despite us both being avid Rugby fans and having both played for the Old Laurentians. This may have had something to do with the slight gap between our respective playing days but I’d like to think that I held my own on the pitch and was able to show the younger guys a thing or two out on there!”
The balls used in the game were provided by Gilbert Sports in Rugby who had kindly supplied a number of balls prior to the game to the All Party Parliamentary Group for Rugby Union of which Mark is Vice-Chairman.
Mark added:
“I am very grateful to Neil Gray, Operations Director, at Gilbert Sports for his generosity in providing us with balls for the APPG team. They have certainly been put to good use so far! The Commons team will also play in the Parliamentary World Cup in New Zealand next year so they will be of great benefit to us in the future as well.”
Mark also highlighted his wish to see Rugby exploit its links with game in the future for the benefit of the town on the whole.
Mark concluded:
“There are obvious links between our town and the sport of Rugby. I recently met with representatives of the Rugby Football Union (RFU) and Rugby Borough Council in order to attempt to improve those links and I am hopeful we will start to see results in the very near future.”