Welsh rugby star Jonathan Davies visits old school to promote WRU literacy ...

Wales hero Jonathan Davies has visited his old school to join a literacy lesson involving the new WRU mascot Scorch.

Lions and Scarlets centre Davies was joined by his international and regional team-mate Ken Owens when they visited Dyffryn Taf in Whitland.

The WRU has published a 22-page comic-strip novel, which introduces young rugby fans to its new mascot, and offered free copies, as well as tablet and iPad download versions, to every school in Wales.

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The West Wales school, which produced Davies and fellow current international star Mike Phillips, was one of the first to order copies of the comic book.

Davies and Owens joined in with readings and helped sing the national anthem, which features at the end of the story to ‘Unleash the Dragon’ at the Millennium Stadium.

“It’s been an interesting distraction from the intensity of preparations for the South Africa game at the weekend, to have come along and met all the children and staff in Whitland today and we have had a great time reading about Scorch in the lesson,” said Davies.

“I have extremely fond memories of my time here and try to get back to say hello when I can.  They always make a fuss of me and it’s great to be able to give something back in terms of getting involved in a lesson and helping out the extremely dedicated teachers at the school.”

The comic book contains historical references and contains a unique take on Arthurian mythology – laying claim to fictional wizard Merlin’s Welsh roots in Carmarthen and citing the “sword in the stone” legend.

“Being from ‘Merlin country’ myself, I really enjoyed Scorch’s back story and more importantly all the children seemed to enjoy their day as well,” said Owens.

“We know the nation will be behind us on Saturday, we are all looking forward to it and if the crowd sing the national anthem as loudly as the pupils in the lesson today it will be nothing less than inspirational.”

The dramatisation of Scorch’s back story – which also involves a group of young adventurers travelling back in time to 1856 to visit Evan and James James, the composers of the Welsh National Anthem (Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau) – is being presented as a tool for teachers as they attempt to meet the challenges of the new literacy drive in Wales.

“Today has been a great example of the role rugby plays in all our daily lives in Wales,” said WRU group chief executive Roger Lewis, who also accompanied the players ‘back to school’ and joined in the interactive lesson.

“We took a simple decision, having created the Scorch idea in order to reach out to children in Wales and engage them with their national sport, to offer something to schools that could be of real value and use to them at lesson time.

“Ysgol Dyffryn Taf have not only embraced that idea, but they have impressed us all with this amazing lesson today and if this is an example of how the WRU and Schools in Wales can continue to work together then the future is encouraging for all of us.”

The Scorch graphic novel is available to fans via a digital online i-comic, free to download at iTunes. The i-comic has its own sound track recorded by local Welsh actors and features a choir in full voice.

Article source: http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/news/rugby-efficient-new-zealand-beat-combative-japan-tokyo-064620164--spt.html

Welsh rugby star Jonathan Davies visits old school to promote WRU literacy ...