Britain's Prince Harry has been named patron of a new Rugby Football Union (RFU) campaign.
The royal - who is also vice-patron of the RFU and patron of the RFU Injured Players Foundation - has taken on a new role as patron of the All Schools campaign to help the organisation spread rugby into state education establishments.
Clothing company Canterbury have been named as the official partners of the initiative, which is hoping to bring rugby to 750 more schools by the time the Rugby World Cup kicks off in 2019.
A St James's Palace spokesperson said: "This patronage will allow Prince Harry to combine his passion for rugby with his work to help children and young people in society to build their skills, confidence and aspirations.
"Prince Harry recognises that rugby can play an important role in helping to achieve this."
Ian Ritchie, Chief Executive of the RFU, is also pleased Harry has agreed to be patron of the "extremely important" campaign and hopes it can have a big positive effect on the sport's future.
He said: "We are delighted that Prince Harry and Canterbury have pledged their support for All Schools. It's an extremely important initiative for the RFU, and is already having a significant impact up and down the country.
"We know that both Prince Harry and the team at Canterbury share our aims to encourage more young people to play rugby and I look forward to us growing the game together."
