The Spirit of Rugby Award was created in 2021 to recognise exceptional effort, commitment or support for rugby around the world.

Phil Klevorick (CEO of TRF) said "I wanted to create something different, something that epitomised the core values of rugby, Integrity, Passion, Solidarity, Discipline and Respect."

"We thought hard about the criteria that the recipients would need to meet." "It needed to be something special, something prestigious and eventually we created the Spirit of Rugby Award and a very unique glass rugby ball for the recipients."

It's not easy for people to receive the Spirit of Rugby Award, those who do have done something very special or showed long term dedication to Growing the Game Globally.

Take a look at the very special people and organisations who have won the Award.

Only one Award has been made in 2024 and we waited until the very end of the year to announce the recipient as the "2024 Winner".

Bogdan has been working closely with Rugby Club Odesa during the war as well as supporting the wider rugby community and their families.

Bogdan met us in July 2024 and escorted us through Western Ukraine to show us the City of Odesa and a new rugby club being formed called Avangard just outside the City.

In September, Bogdan was once again our guide, driver and translator as Mike visited Ukraine for an extended period to work on delivering support for rugby projects in the war ravished country. Bogdan has a huge personality and an even bigger heart, he devotes much of his time to rugby in Ukraine, doing whatever is necessary to keep the community together and to allow rugby to continue. His hard work, dedication and huge spirit led us to make only one award in 2024, to Bogdan Zhulavsky.

You can read the full story of Bogdan's Award here.

Gibraltar Rugby is a true survivor, a minnow in rugby terms with an area measuring 3 miles by 3/4 of a mile and yet it packs a big punch with an incredible, hard working and enthusiastic team.

Although occupying a strategic position in Europe and guarding the Mediterranian, Gibraltar is not recognised by Rugby Europe & therefore not by World Rugby despite having a percentage of population exceeding many others. Their struggle for recognition will continue for some years but it has not dampened their spirits. Participation particularly in age grade rugby is growing well and Spanish teams play in the Gibraltar league.

some exciting experiences within rugby.

After school Tom took a gap year and a position as Director of Rugby at a school before going on to complete a Sports Degree, during which time he also joined the RFU Youth Council in England eventually becoming Chair in his last season.

After delivering a successful outreach into under served school communities with Leicester Tigers, Tom moved to Gibraltar to grow participation.

Tom truly has the Spirit of Rugby and is a deserved recipient alongside Gibraltar Rugby

Bernardo Costa Duarte, Antonio Cunha

In 2023 TRF visited the Portugal Rugby Youth Festival for the third time. The largest youth rugby event in Europe happens each spring in Lisbon Portugal under the leadership of Bernardo and Antonio.

Since it began the PRYF has opened their arms to more than 37,000 young rugby players and 1600 teams from 28 countries in the beautiful city of Lisbon. This is a global gathering of friendship, rugby and celebration. 300 games across 8 pitches are packed into a thrilling 2 days of competition each year and working alongside Sevens Referee, they have helped to develop over 70 referees since 2022 many of whom have used this experience and the coaching to go onto Rugby Europe and even World Rugby appointments.

Alongside their Spirit of Rugby Award, Bernardo and Antonio were also awarded the Rugby Recycles "Green" Award for their initiatives

Base Camp

For the past few years, TRF has been supporting an exciting project with the Las Vegas Area Boy Scouts of America called Base Camp.

This initiative, which includes a programme called "Santa Clothes" that takes under privileged children shopping in private for clothes at Christmas, has been running for a few years guided by the Scouts and supported by the Las Vegas Rotary Club. It also includes activity days where children receive a taster of different sports throughout the day including Flag (TAG) Rugby led by TRF.

Not only do the children have fun trying out new sports, getting exercise, meeting new people and making new friends, they are also guided on what we might call the Core Values of Rugby, respect, integrity, teamwork, discipline and friendship.

After a childhood in Alaska which Justin describes as "tough tackling and wild characters - that was the Green family and growing up in Alaska", he went on to learn rugby whilst at St Lawrence College, trained by a Welshman, rugby was always going to stay with him.

Stay it did even with his return to Alaska many years later. He built his business, Alaska Demolition, using his rugby teammates as his staff. He certainly gave back more than he took as he invested to build Alaska's first and only rugby facility at the Alaska Mountain Rugby Grounds, possibly one of the prettiest rugby grounds in the world.

It's not clear whether he got bored and left the pond where it was or whether his keen sense of fun and humour led him to leave it there on purpose but in doing so he created the iconic "Try Dive", often reserved for the last games of the Midnight Sun Sevens as players dive into the pond to score an automatic 7 points - one or two refs have also been known to follow the player into the pond to award the try.

Justin and his wife Melissa open their home to rugby whenever possible, they are fantastic hosts, amazing rugby enthusiasts and above all, wonderful people.

In presenting Justin with the Spirit of Rugby Award, Phil commented that "it was an absolute joy to present the award to such wonderful people. What they have both done for rugby in Alaska cannot be underestimated, I'm so pleased that we can recognise their commitment in this way."

The 2021 NAI7s was a place for outstanding achievement epitomising the core values of rugby.

For the boys from Guam U16 & U18 their award was for the hard work and dedication to create community fundraising projects so that they could travel more than 6000 miles to be at the tournament.

These endeavours and the very cornerstone of rugby, teamwork and resilience. their smiles and enjoyment of the event were evident for everybody to see and was certainly recognised by everybody at the tournament.

Belmont Shore Girl's Rugby

The very first recipients of the Spirit of Rugby Award were three magnificent young ladies from Belmont Shore Rugby Club.

They gained the monica "Water Babies" for the way that they supported and looked after their team as "hydration specialists" during the North American Invitational Sevens in Salt Lake City.

It was great to see the enthusuasm and solidarity that they showed throughout.