Academy
Introducing: The Matt Ratana Rugby Foundation Academy
Launched in December 2025, the Matt Ratana Rugby FoundationAcademy was created with a clear purpose: to provide a high-quality, structured training environment for young people who have thrived in our schools programme and are ready to take the next step.
The results have surpassed all expectations. In a short space of time, the academy has become something genuinely special - a place defined by camaraderie, commitment, and real, visible development. What has been most striking is who walks through the door. Players from 13 different schools, different year groups, different parts of the city. Some have never touched a rugby ball before. Others play for clubs every weekend. What unites them is simple: they keep coming back.
To date, 113 young people have attended the academy - 76 boys and 37 girls - and we have already run 4 showcase fixtures, giving players the chance to perform, compete, and grow in front of their peers.
But the academy is about more than rugby. It is another safe, structured space in the week - a positive choice after the school day ends. For young people navigating difficult circumstances, that alternative matters enormously. Time spent developing on a rugby pitch is time spent building confidence, friendships, and a sense of purpose. It is time that makes a difference.
We are incredibly proud of what the academy has become in such a short time, and we cannot wait to see what comes next.
Why After School Matters
After school hours are one of the most critical moments in a young person's day.
Research consistently shows that young people are most at risk of becoming involved in antisocial behaviour, exploitation, and violence during after-school hours - when structure disappears and supervision is limited. In London alone, a significant proportion of youth violence and gang-related activity occurs in this window.
For young people from under-resourced backgrounds, the risks are even greater. Without access to structured activities, safe spaces, or trusted adults, the streets become the default, and the consequences can be life-changing.
- For children in England and Wales, the period after the school day finishes — between 4pm and 8pm - is especially risky for the most serious violence. (Youth Endowment Fund)
- In London, young people make up 30% of the population, yet accounted for 48% of knife-enabled crime victims in 2024–25. (Metropolitan Police Data Bulletin)
- Nearly 1 in 5 teenagers said they had been a victim of violence in the past year, and half said they had witnessed violence being committed against someone else. (Youth Endowment Fund, Children, Violence and Vulnerability 2025)
This is why what we do matters beyond rugby. Every session we run - whether through our TackleLondon in-school and after-school provision, our after-school clubs, or the Matt Ratana Rugby Foundation Academy - is a direct intervention in that critical window. It is a young person choosing somewhere safe, purposeful, and positive over the alternative.
The numbers speak for themselves: across our programmes we are engaging over 5,000 young people, with hundreds more attending after-school clubs and the academy on their own initiative. These are not just rugby sessions. They are hours filled with mentoring, growth, and belonging - hours that, for many of these young people, could otherwise have looked very different.
Keeping young people safe, supported, and engaged after school is not a footnote to our work. It is at the very heart of it.
Get involved
Help more young people
find their place
Every session we run, every mentor we place in a school, every pathway we create to a rugby club - none of it happens without support. Your donation directly funds more young people having somewhere safe to be, with someone who genuinely cares about their future.
Matt believed in giving young people a chance. Help us keep giving it to them.