For those of you that have been following Out On The Full for a little while now you will know that Nordoff Robbins’ Six Nations Dinner is a firm fixture in my calendar. However, for those of you that are new to Out On The Full then allow me to introduce you to a wonderful evening and charity and advise you strongly to see if you can be at next year’s dinner.
Nordoff Robbins is an independent music therapy charity and in their own words they are ‘dedicated to changing the lives of vulnerable and isolated people’. It’s often the case that the music therapy that Nordoff Robbins provides makes breakthroughs with individuals in a way that other therapies are simply unable to do. We all know the power of music on our own emotions, mood and feelings and the same can be said for those that often find communication of any from difficult or suffer from conditions such as autism or dementia.
Each year Nordoff Robbins host a series of events in order to support their work and these span across a number of different sports like rugby, boxing football and golf as well as a plethora of music events. All of their evenings are brilliantly delivered and if you are the person that's in charge of your corporate outings then I can honestly say that a table at Nordoff Robbins' Rugby Dinner is a solid investment. The first Nordoff Robbins Rugby Dinner I attended was prior to working in rugby when I worked at GSK as a Brand Manager and it was a corporate night out that was discussed for a long time afterwards and the team continue to return each year.
The evening is always hosted in honour of a particular player's achievements in the game and last night that person was Chris Robshaw. As you'd expect with such a well respected individual the room was packed with Familiar faces there supporting including Jeremy Guscot, Mike Tindall, his Harlequins' colleagues and Lawrence Dallaglio who actually I found out was Chris' childhood hero (something I perhaps should have known before).
The evening is always hosted in honour of a particular player's achievements in the game and last night that person was Chris Robshaw. As you'd expect with such a well respected individual the room was packed with Familiar faces there supporting including Jeremy Guscot, Mike Tindall, his Harlequins' colleagues and Lawrence Dallaglio who actually I found out was Chris' childhood hero (something I perhaps should have known before).
Before the evening started in earnest I spoke with Chris on the side of their red carpet about his visit to Nordoff Robbins' music therapy centre, his injury situation and of course the forthcoming Six Nations Championship:
England's back row forward showed extraordinary resilience in the face of a whole barrage of criticism following England's World Cup issues in 2015 and bounced back following a change of captaincy. As a result of his consistency, work rate and output he 30-year-ol won over the opinion of Eddie Jones - something that is notoriously difficult to do. Chris has been at the heart of Harlequins' historic success and has driven England forwards in a way that impressed his straight-talking coach at Harlequins Nick Easter (click below to here Nick's thoughts)
As I mentioned earlier Nordoff Robbins continues to work tirelessly to change lives of individuals that have so many challenges and obstacles in their daily lives and their Rugby Dinner is key part of raising the funds to do this.
With such a focus on the forthcoming Six Championship last night and with England's squad being announced first thing on Friday morning (20th) I'm already looking forward to a stellar Championship.
As always I'll be bring you every step of England's journey over the coming two months and I hope that this article has done a number of things. First, brought to your attention the work of the superb charity, second provided you with some insights and clarity from Chris himself in terms of his injury situation and finally given you a feel for what is a stunning rugby dinner in the hope that you might join me there next year!
