Oh Boys! at the O2

The RFTG team were out in force at yesterdays O2 Event in Regents park and we are glad to say that none of them got arrested! (It was a close one though)

Louise and Natalie spent the day interviewing and snapping away at the O2 in the Park last weekend. Their mission... to talk to and get photos of as many gorgeous rugby players as they could. Here's how they got on...

BTW - see below for Louise, Natalies and Debbies photos of this great day.

  
The day started off with a bit of over excitment. We couldn't believe what we were going to do. Who was gonna be there? Would anyone talk to us? 
 
When we got there we had to wait around until they opened the gates. We tried to sort out our plan of attack although by this point I was feeling little nervous. 
 
Once inside we wondered round working out where everything was and got straight in the queue for meeting the players hoping to God we could get to the front in time for Jonny Wilkinson's session. Unfortunately things moved far too slowly so we missed him. Damn! Plan B sprang into action. We got round the back and waited for him to come out. Well! Talk about security. Anyone would think he was royalty. Hardly anyone could get near him although Natalie got within inches of pinching his bottom 'till she got pushed out of the way by a huge security guard......spoil-sport!
 
With that plan foiled we decided to go on the hunt for players to talk to. We couldn't get anywhere near any of the England players and all the other professionals had jobs to do so it was harder than expected. We did manage to talk to some Saracens boys who were more than willing to chat to us. We also managed to collar one premiership player. Hugh Vyvyan from Saracens answered all our questions and was really helpful. He has a baby on the way (well his wife has) so we just want to say congratulations to him and his wife and we hope everything goes well. 
 
The England players were within yards of us for most of the day, making children's dreams come true by giving them training sessions. It was lovely to watch and showed how that on the eve of travelling to France they were willing to give something back to their supporters and maybe future players.
 
Natalie spent most of this time running onto the pitch to get autographs and dodging the security who threw her off about 4 times as it was supposed to be children, and I'm not ashamed to say we convinced a child to get Jonny Wilkinson's autograph in return for our permanent marker pen - what!! Well! we weren't going to be able to get that close, were we?
 
The day ended with a display from the Grenediers who marched and played. Then to a rendition of swing low sweet chariot sung by the London Community Gospel Choir. The whole team then came out and gave interviews to Austin Healey and Kirsty Gallagher. 
 
All in all the day was fantastic. Over 10,000 people came and spent the day watching their heroes show off their skills and sign autographs. Austin Healey was fantastic as compair, with his usual comic flair and cheekiness. 
 
We just want to say 'thank you' to all the boys who took the time to talk to us and to RFTG for giving us the oppourtunity. As a thank you we put a message on the England tour bus wishing them all good luck in France from all from Rugby for the Girls.

Good Luck Boys. Louise and Natalie. xxxxxx

Debbie Challoner was also at the event waving the flag for RFTG. Here she is being 'flanked' by two gorgeous Wasp players.

Here's what she had to say:-

It was a very good day out - watching players give tips to the youngsters which was amusing too. Met a few premiership players too and had free ice cream from the O2 blueroom. Watched Tom Rees out stare Austin Healey, Danny Hipkiss tackling Austin. Then eventually seeing the team off. Danny Hipkiss and Jamie Noon remembered me from the No Surrender on Thursday night too - bless them!

Enjoy the photos everyone!

Debs x

RFTG would like to say a big thank you to the girls who took the time to chase the boys round the park in aid of RFTG. We are looking for more to join the RFTG team so drop us a line at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it if you would like to get involved.

O2 in the Park - 2nd September 2007