RFL chief praises Cumbria development (From The Westmorland Gazette)

RFL chief praises Cumbria development

10:00am Friday 3rd February 2012 in Rugby By Patrick O'Kane, Senior News/Sport Reporter

RUGBY football league chief executive Nigel Wood has expressed his admiration for the development work taking place in Cumbria.

Wood visited the county this week as it was announced the regional Cumbria League would kick off its first summer-based campaign in March.

He said: “Cumbria has always been one of the strongest areas for Rugby League’s grassroots and has a rich tradition of producing and developing quality Rugby League players.

“We are spending a lot of time listening to key stakeholders and as a result we’ve made some great progress in the region recently. This feedback has enabled us to understand the big issues and challenges that people are facing which then helps us to improve our service as a national sports governing body.

More than 50 boys’ teams and 30 girls’ teams were involved in the latest Carnegie Champion Schools competition and the success is helped by excellent links with the county’s professional clubs - Barrow, Whitehaven and Workington.