THE RUGBY Black List has recently been established to celebrate the contributions and achievements of the Black rugby community. In partnership with England Rugby, the Rugby Black List will be celebrating the achievements of black role models, with the hope that many more follow in their footsteps. 

The awards evening will take place on Monday 16th January, at the House of Lords.

Sagan Daniels has drawn inspiration from the iconic Football Blacklist to launch a Rugby equivalent.

After enlisting the help of Garnet Mackinder at Sport England amongst others, the Rugby Blacklist aims to recognise and inspire those from ethnic minority backgrounds thriving in one of the nations most loved sports.

Both Sagan and Garnet sat down with The Voice‘s Matthew Chadder to speak about the event and its importance.

MC: What is the Rugby Black List all about?

Sagan: The Rugby Black List is going to be an awards event that celebrates the contribution and achievements of Black, Afro Caribbean, and ethnic minority players in rugby. The first one is going to be an awards ceremony in the House of Lords and we’re looking to have an annual event every year to celebrate the work that is done, not only from the top end of the game, but also within the community game, making sure that all contributions are being recognised and people get an opportunity to network with their peers and prominent people within rugby.

Garnet: There are awards for coaches and leaders, not just players. We just want to highlight those people doing great things as role models with the hope to show that rugby is for everyone, including the Black community, and hopefully in years to come, we’ll have loads more to choose from.

Just how important is it to have role models?

Garnet: Absolutely, from the women’s perspective, we’ve got some great nominations. We want people to look up to those people. We’ve got more players coming through, but it’s those other roles; coaches, referees, administrators, where I think we’re a bit short on role models in the Black community. We’re hoping that this event can highlight that.

Sagan: Part of the event will highlight that there’s lots and lots of different entry points into rugby, lots of ways to be involved and highlighting that and bringing that to the forefront of people’s attentions.

What was the inspiration behind this?

Sagan: A guy that we’ve got on board, Leon Mann, who has something very similar in football called the Football Black List and it wasn’t too big of a leap to kind of think about an equivalent for rugby.

I got a small group of people together, including Garnett. I’ve learned on those people’s expertise beyond measure and those connections in the game, and their personalities in the game, to really bring all of this together. A lot of people wanted it to happen, we just needed to get the right people to make it happen.

Garnet: It’s definitely been challenging, but it’s just so exciting. I can’t wait to get to January now, I just think it’s going to be a great event, getting the right people in the room, hopefully, to make some change, and it will be even bigger and better in years to come.

What have the biggest challenges been?

Garnet: Our networks only reach so far, there’s professional rugby players, people that are hard to reach that we really want to be there, because they’re the people that are role models already. I think we’ve got a really good core group, but it’s getting those final VIP people that we really want in the room, that is the biggest challenge for us.

Sagan: It’s just making sure that the right people are there and making sure that this has an impact. It’s our desire to have a bit of a legacy and be the first of many. There will be people that we probably don’t think of that may miss out but hopefully, next time around, they’ll be wanting to come, and it will be a lot easier to invite them.

What would define this event as a success for you?

Sagan: If we can tell a story on the night of somebody’s contribution that has never been heard before and highlight and amplify that story and that story then inspires another person and then somebody says, “well, I did this because I heard that story” that is success.  

The scale of that doesn’t really matter even if it’s ones and twos I’m completely happy with that.

What does the future hold?

Sagan: I’m already thinking about year two and that’s bad because we’ve not done this one yet. I just want to keep going, I want us to have a good event in January, then I want to keep on getting better and keep on inspiring people and keep on amplifying rugby as a place for everybody, especially those from Black and ethnic minorities. I think it’s so important that we do this, and I think we need to keep on doing it until it’s not needed anymore.