JUST like Jonny Wilkin-son's drop-goal, the timing was perfect.

On a day when the country was inspired by the England rugby team's World Cup triumph in Australia, Luctonians launched a scheme to promote the sport in schools and communities across Herefordshire and the Welsh Marches.

It was good news all round for the Kingsland-based club.

They screened the World Cup final in the morning, followed up with an inter-schools competition - which resulted in a draw, introduced the Sun Valley Rugby Project at a lunch, and then beat visiting Bedford Athletic in a top-of-the-table league game in the afternoon.

The Sun Valley Project, run with support from two other local companies, Tyrrell's Potato Chips and Bengry's Motors, in conjunction with the Sportsmatch grant scheme, will provide rugby coaching for more than 700 pupils from the ages of 10 to 16 each week over a three-year period.

Whereas Luctonians director of rugby Simon Green-Price, New Zealander Troy Looms and Australian Dan Hinton currently coach schools in North Herefordshire, the £100,000 initiative will roll out the project to a much wider area for the development of the game.

Sun Valley director Richard Maxfield said: "We are delighted to have joined forces with Luctonians to provide a structured programme of rugby to schools across Herefordshire and the Marches areas.

"Rugby teaches important life skills, such as discipline, communication and team-work, as well as providing a strong network through clubs."

And Simon Davies, Luctonians' director of youth sport, added: "With England in the Rugby World Cup final, there was no better time to launch this project."