San Francisco Frontiers - Walking Rugby boosts game for Welsh seniors

Many simply retire, picking up a golf club or fishing rod while turning up on the sidelines to cheer on the first team and repairing to the bar for a pint. The social aspect of rugby never disappears.

Many older players are finding a way to keep playing, sometimes as veterans in the contact game but increasingly under the umbrella of Walking Rugby.

Such is the case at Pontyclun in south Wales where the club held a successful Walking Rugby festival in June.

"This is a fast growing sport supported by the WRU played by over 20 clubs in South Wales," the club declares on its website.

"The game is essentially touch rugby at walking pace! All the fun elements of the traditional game but without the pain!"

The no-contact aspect of the game means a 'tackle' is made by a touch on the armpit or below.

Played on one half of a pitch, participants must be walking at all times which makes it ideal for those who no longer have the pace of a young Shane Williams or the sidestep of Phil Bennett in his prime.

Festivals have also provided players with the opportunity to play at such iconic Welsh grounds as the Gnoll in Neath, Newport's Rodney Parade and even the Principality Stadium itself.

Whether they will be gathering at Welsh club houses to cheer a triumphant Rugby World Cup remains to be seen.

Warren Gatland's team have had a poor year, a fifth-placed finish in the Six Nations followed by a raft of retirements and deepening concern over the financial health of the professional game in Wales.

The Welsh, however, have a decent record at World Cups, having reached the semi-finals in 1987, 2011 and again in 2019 when they lost to eventual champions South Africa.

In France, they open against Fiji in Bordeaux on September 10 before taking on Portugal, Australia and Georgia.

A top-two finish in the pool could bring them a quarter-final against their old nemesis England, a match guaranteed not to be played at walking pace.

++ Ahead of the Rugby World Cup in France, Agence France-Presse asked 20 aspiring photographers from each country qualified for the competition to show one aspect of the rugby union culture in their homeland, with the help of Canon cameras who are sponsoring the tournament. From Namibia to Fiji via Georgia and Scotland this photo essay gives us a glimpse of the core values of rugby on five continents.

H.Davis--SFF