At England Rugby, one of our core objectives is to drive rugby union to better reflect the diversity of society. We are aware that rugby, and sports in general, has not always been as welcoming an environment for everyone as we would like, and we are working hard to make rugby a more inclusive space for all identities.

We believe hiring people from underrepresented groups into positions at all levels is vital to creating spaces and initiatives that better support those identities. We would love to see applications from disabled people, LGBTQ+ people, people from ethnically diverse communities, people of faith, people from lower socio-economic backgrounds, and women and non-binary people.

We know that representation is more than just getting people through the door, it’s about keeping people by responding to structural barriers relating to identities and valuing the insights that different lived experiences bring. We have network groups that provide peer-to-peer support and drive forward change internally. We support colleagues to develop, and each colleague has access to a personal coaching platform that can provide same-day one-to-one coaching.

We are pushing ourselves to create a more inclusive culture every day through role modelling our BACK behaviours which stand for Brave, Accountable, Collaborative and Keep improving.