35 pupils from schools across South East England received an extra special surprise during a Canterbury Kit Design workshop when HRH Prince Harry paid them an unexpected visit.

The students were attending a Kit Design workshop as part of the All Schools programme, an initiative launched in 2012 by the Rugby Football Union (RFU) in partnership with the Rugby Football Foundation, which aims to help more secondary state school children play rugby. Canterbury is Official Partner to All Schools, and Prince Harry is Patron.

The objective of the Kit Design workshop is to get schools designing their own team rugby shirt. The session explores what rugby means to them, whilst teaching pupils about the core values of the game, the pride associated with the England shirt and the importance of colours, logos and emblems. Canterbury then turns these drawings into final bespoke designs to be proudly worn by the school’s rugby team on the pitch.

The pupils were engaged in the workshop at Twickenham (the home of English rugby) when Prince Harry dropped by to check out their rugby shirt designs.

Ian Ritchie, Chief Executive, RFU said;

“It was fantastic to see Prince Harry chatting to pupils as they designed their shirts. Judging by their reaction they all had a truly memorable experience and one I hope will encourage them to continue enjoying rugby.”

The schools were then given a free hand to design the shirt they wanted for their school rugby team to be competing in. The schools will be presented with their shirts in the New Year. Canterbury will provide each school participating in the 2013 All Schools programme with 20 shirts in their bespoke design (100 schools in total).