Nearly 100 girls got the chance to meet and train with two Rugby World Cup winners at a festival in Teignmouth on Sunday.

Red Roses, Maddie Feaunati and Claudia Moloney-Macdonald, who were part of the England team that won the Rugby World Cup last weekend, took part in a festival at Teignmouth Rugby Club aimed at inspiring the next generation.

‘For us to be able to come here and hopefully have a little influence, even if it’s just on one or two people’s rugby careers, then that would be amazing,’ Claudia said.

‘This is exactly our goal, to inspire the girls in the next generation,’ Maddie agreed.

Around 30 of the girls attending the event were trying the sport for the first time. ‘Some of these girls haven’t played rugby before so just them seeing us do it and then wanting to get involved is really all we wanted,’ Maddie added.

After taking part in rugby training activities, the girls got the chance to ask Claudia and Maddie questions about their journey from grassroots to Rugby World Cup success and have their photos taken with the England stars.

‘It’s inspiring for them to be able to meet the people they’ve watched on TV and watched in the stadiums. But also, to see that they can achieve this for themselves,’ commented parent, Kath Wilson.

‘It was an incredible day’ commented Teignmouth Rugby Club head of girls and women Paul Scott. ‘It was especially exciting to introduce the sport to girls who had never played before.’

While at Teignmouth Rugby Club, Claudia and Maddie officially opened the new changing rooms. ‘Without these new changing rooms, which give us more space so we can host games for different age groups and males and females, we wouldn’t be able to hold events like these,’ said Teignmouth Rugby Club chair Mark Layton.