SINGAPORE — Singapore rugby is riding on a wave of momentum driven up by two Super Rugby matches played here and the coming HSBC World Rugby Singapore Sevens later this month, as the sport tries to reach out to the young.

Yesterday, it was announced that more students across local schools will get to try their hand at rugby through the ActiveSG rugby enrichment programme.

The pilot programme is developed in collaboration with SportCares Foundation — a philanthropic arm of Sport Singapore that aims to introduce sport to underprivileged children and other needy people — and the Singapore Rugby Union (SRU).

East Spring Secondary School is the first school to join the programme, and 14 of their students —out of 30 who applied — were selected to participate in the 30-week course, with weekly training every Thursday at the school field.

National rugby sevens player Jay-Hykel Jailani will be helping to coach the kids in some sessions.

The aim of the programme is to get more schools in Singapore to have rugby as part of their physical education (PE) classes, and have it as a co-curricular activity (CCA) in the future. Currently, only 18 primary schools and 16 secondary schools in Singapore offer rugby as a CCA, along with all the international and private schools here.

“This is a pilot programme and we will do some studies around it,” said Sport Singapore CEO Lim Teck Yin yesterday. “Rugby is not played widely in many of our schools. It is confined to a small group of schools.

“This is rugby season … And Sport SG, ActiveSG, and SportCares are using (a string of) rugby events as opportunities to work with schools.”

SRU general manager George Danapal said the association is “trying to create awareness of our sport”.

“We are trying to ride on the momentum of the (HSBC World Rugby Singapore) Sevens coming to town (April 16-17),” he said. “We want to reach out to as many schools as we possibly can. We started that through Tag 7s (a simplistic and non-contact version of rugby) and try to introduce (it as) PE lessons to primary school, and we are hoping that more schools will pick up rugbyafter this.

“The biggest misconception about rugby is it is a dangerous sport ... But if coached well, and if students start young, it is not a problem.”

The ActiveSG football academy, headed by principal and local football legend Aleksandar Duric, will have its first football clinic tomorrow. ADELENE WONG