Rugby Good Governance Integrity Education Project

Background Good governance in sport is paramount in helping to address anti-doping and match-fixing threats, and any sports governing body seeking to protect and promote the integrity of sport must provide effective education programmes for its players and other participants. E-learning is one of the most effective ways to reach a wide range of learners and the development of modern, multi-language e-learning programmes would significantly improve the integrity knowledge-base for rugby in Europe. Objectives The project involved the development of two new interactive, multi-platform integrity e-learning programmes for anti-doping and anti-corruption/betting (in ENG/FRA/ESP/ITA/PRT/POL/DEU/NLD). These were primarily to optimise integrity education and governance for rugby in Europe, but as free-to-access programmes they would also benefit the wider sporting landscape. Once completed, the programmes would be disseminated to become an integral part of the education infrastructure in the sport. Implementation Both programmes were successfully developed and tested with the input of stakeholders, and have been rolled-out across the sport on a phased basis in 2020 and 2021 as each language was developed. The programmes were promoted by players and officials at rugby events, as well as on World Rugby and Member Union media channels, and at international conferences to ensure maximum awareness and dissemination. The programmes are hosted at: https://passport.world.rugby/protect-the-game. Achievements Both programmes were completed as proposed and World Rugby has funded the creation of additional European and worldwide languages. Completion of the anti-doping programme by participants is now mandatory in World Rugby's annual education policy, and the completion of both programmes is mandatory for participation in World Rugby competitions, which will ensure many thousands of users will access the content each year. To date, 9559 users overall have accessed the programmes worldwide.