How a captain's letter took a Yorkshire rugby club to Twickenham

Back in November, in an attempt to incentivise community clubs to retain players and field third and fourth teams, the Rugby Football Union invited clubs to write a 500-word statement saying what they were doing to promote the community game and stem the flow of players stopping playing at colts and not filtering into the seniors.

The letter Driffield’s fourth-team captain Gareth Culpan sent was a winner.

“Gareth is the reason we’re going to Twickenham,” said Driffield’s chairman of rugby Patrick Burdass, Bash as he is known.

“He didn’t hear back for months, and then last month he just suddenly announced we’re off to Twickenham. I nearly fell off my chair.”

Driffield will play 20-minute games against the three other invited teams: Daventry, Gosford All Blacks and Egham on Sunday. There is also a women’s tournament.

The achievement continues a successful period for Driffield, whose first team won the Papa John’s Community Cup final at Twickenham in 2023 and the Yorkshire Cup final against Goole at Doncaster 12 months later.

“No cup at the end of it, it’s just a community rugby day and a great experience for those lads, for whom it might never happen again,” said Burdass.

“A lot of our fourth-team lads will have watched our first team down at Twickenham two years ago but will never have dreamed of playing there themselves.

“It’s good for grassroots rugby as well, it gets it back in the shop window which can only be good for that level, and help the game stop losing players and get them back into the game we love.”