In honor of International Volunteers Day, I wanted to take a moment to shine a little more light on all of the amazing volunteers out in clubland. If you spend enough time around grassroots rugby, you begin to notice something. There are a lot of ingredients that make a rugby club feel like home—the buzz of a Saturday at the grounds, the try-saving tackles, the post-match pints. The list is long, but chief among those ingredients are the volunteers. Those wildly dedicated, quietly heroic humans who show up early, stay late, and somehow keep the entire operation stitched together with nothing but passion, duct tape, and a belief that rugby can change lives.

Every club has them. You know exactly who they are the moment you read this. The coach who never meant to coach. The referee who stepped in “just this once” and is now in year seven. The person who somehow became the social media manager, match-day organizer, lawn mower, fundraiser, food-table wizard, and substitute touch judge all in the same season. Grassroots rugby is built on people who didn’t wait to be asked—they just rolled up their sleeves and got the job done.

Last week, we talked about the absolute truth that without the grassroots, rugby doesn’t exist. But let’s take it one step further: without volunteers, there are no clubs.

Volunteers are the first to arrive at the pitch, walking through dew-soaked grass to set flags, pump balls, and make sure the day even happens. They’re the ones hauling tents in the rain, keeping the books straight, and cleaning up after everyone else has gone home. They’re the ones who listen when a new player is nervous, when a parent has a question, or when a teammate needs a quiet moment on the sideline.

Volunteers are the glue—the steady hands that keep grassroots rugby from cracking under the weight of everything we ask it to be.

And what they give goes far beyond the tasks. They give heart. They create belonging. They build the culture that keeps people coming back long after the final whistle.

Think about this for a moment: most rugby clubs are, more or less, small businesses. They have customers, collect funds through memberships, sponsorships, events, and merchandise sales. Running a rugby club is a massive undertaking—just as complex as running any business. Except in most rugby clubs, the people running the show aren’t doing it for themselves. Every dollar raised goes right back into the club, because volunteers are handling duties that would otherwise require paid personnel.

Across the world, clubs run on people who fit jerseys, sweep clubhouses, drive carpools, run youth clinics, and answer emails at midnight. They give up weekends, family time, and bits of their sanity so that someone else gets a chance to fall in love with rugby.

And most of the time, they never ask for recognition. They’re thrilled if the jerseys are clean, the cones are straight, and someone remembered to bring ice.

Grassroots volunteers are often quick to take on a challenge and figure out how to make it happen later. I’ve seen it hundreds of times. At my club, we like to use the phrase “turning lemons into lemonade.” That’s what we do. We take less-than-ideal situations and turn them into something special so that our players, members, and fans can focus on enjoying rugby—often never knowing the obstacles that were navigated along the way.

When we say “grassroots,” we’re not talking about a level of rugby—we’re talking about an ecosystem. A living, breathing community held together by people who care. Volunteers are the connective tissue that keeps this sport alive, joyful, chaotic, and wonderfully human.

So today, to every volunteer: thank you. Thank you for the hours, the heart, the headaches, and the hope. Thank you for believing that rugby should be played, shared, and passed on. Thank you for being the glue—quiet, strong, and absolutely essential.

Grassroots rugby doesn’t just appreciate you.

It exists because of you.

I’ll be toasting in your honor tonight.