The BKT United Rugby Championship has designated next weekend’s games as ‘The Unity Round’ dedicated to promoting inclusivity in sport and highlighting the importance of the games and the tournament being a welcome space for everyone.

The initiative is part of the United Rugby Championship’s social purpose strategy, Take On Tomorrow, the plan has been to create an activation in support of the Stonewall Rainbow Laces campaign.

The weekend will start with Zebre Parma playing host to Cardiff Rugby at the Stadio Lanfranchi on March 24th and concludes with Ulster playing against the Vodacom Bulls in Belfast on Saturday, March 25th.

Players, match officials and wider team management are being encouraged to wear the Rainbow Laces on their boots or trainers. Rainbow-coloured strapping will also be made available to the players to wear.

At all match venues, BKT URC branding will be updated incorporating the rainbow progress flag along with new assistant referee flags.

Ahead of Unity Round this weekend, all BKT URC social channels will have a complete rebrand to include the rainbow colours. Content specially created for the Unity Round will also be shared throughout the week.

Since the launch of Rainbow Laces in 2013, more than a million people have laced up to light up the visibility that there should be no discrimination against anybody based on gender identity or sexual orientation.

 

 

Sport for Business Perspective

The elements of this activation that can be controlled by the URC will no doubt be executed incredibly well. The most important part though might be the players and management and whether they choose to wear the laces, or more importantly do not.