Papa Johns Community Blog

We’re delighted to share a summary of another huge year of community rugby across with England Rugby, Scottish Rugby, and Welsh Rugby. It’s been a pleasure to work closely with each union to champion active lifestyles through the grassroots game and encourage people all over the UK to play rugby, regardless of age or ability.

Across the Papa Johns Community Cup with England Rugby, the Tartan Touch initiative with Scottish Rugby, and the Road to Principality with Welsh Rugby, we’ve seen records broken, once-in-a-lifetime experiences made, and friendships formed all in the name of promoting rugby and healthy competition.

The Papa Johns Community Cup yielded an incredible 450 participating teams, 29 deserved winners, and matches played across four iconic venues including Sixways Stadium, Darlington Mowden Park, StoneX Stadium and, of course, the home of Rugby, Twickenham Stadium.

What’s more, England coaches Richard Cockerilland Kevin Sinfield were in attendance to present the trophies to the winners during finals played at at Twickenham. To celebrate this years’ competition, Papa Johns’ ‘Try of the Tournament’ and ‘Winners Ballot’ has given two lucky community clubs the opportunity to experience a Red Roses coaching session, and a free Papa Johns Pizza order for the clubhouse.

In Scotland, the Papa Johns Tartan Touch initiative enjoyed a record-breaking year. Tartan Touch 2023 saw the most participants the programme has ever seen, with over 4000 players heading to their local club to take part.

All participants also had the chance to grab a special 50% off pizza (when you spend £30) deal, on every purchase using the code TARTANTOUCH. Each entrant has additionally been entered into a ballot to win a signed Scotland Rugby shirt, or x2 tickets to any 2023 Summer International match. Keep your eyes peeled for winner announcements!

Papa Johns will recognised players who best emulated the values of Tartan Touch. Fellow players have the chance to nominate their player of Tartan Touch by heading to https://scottishrugby.org/papa-johns-tartan-touch/, where winners were randomly selected to win a signed Scotland Rugby shirt or tickets to the 2023 Summer Internationals.

The Road to Principality, Wales’ community rugby competition, pulled in the crowds in their thousands once more. With 38 matches played over 11 days, close to 800,000 people tuning in online to watch the action, and more than 2,000,000 impressions on the WRU Community Twitter as a result. On finals day, an incredible 20,000+ fans attended the Principality Stadium, as the on-field stars got to taste first-hand the Welsh roar from the stands.

A special thanks to our friends at England Rugby, Scottish Rugby, and Welsh Rugby as another unforgettable year of great community rugby action comes to a close. Roll on next season!