By Alistair Magowan

Players like Phil Vickery (left) maintain a strong bond between professional and grass-roots rugby

The Rugby Football Union says that the scheme to boost the game at grass-roots level is well-placed to capitalise on England's route to the World Cup final.

The governing body said that despite England's triumph four years ago, which gave a boost to kids' playing numbers, little impact was made at adult level.

But since then adults have been targeted and the RFU hopes England's success will bolster their efforts.

The RFU?s Simon Mills said: "The signs are that it is successful."

After England's World Cup triumph in 2003 there was a huge increase in children playing at grass-roots level.

The numbers of kids playing aged seven to 12 rose by 28% over the three years after the tournament in Australia, while among teenagers (aged 13-18) there was a 16% increase.

That was set against a 3% increase in the number of adults playing rugby.

England players, like Nick Easter, are involved with junior clubs and coach on a fairly regular basis RFU community manager Simon Mills

In order to address this discrepancy, the RFU set up a recruitment drive called "Go Play Rugby", aimed at bringing 16-35 year-olds back to the game.

The target was to take on an extra 6,000 players in all by launching advertising campaigns and services more suited to an adult audience.

"We approached it with a two-pronged attack," says Mills.

"There were targeted cinema and radio advertising campaigns and there is a dedicated website with a club finder and a text messaging service. We also pre-armed our 700 clubs involved in the campaign.

"Our initial target was to a secure a 6% growth in the six months it is running.

"The signs are that it has been very successful. We believe we have already topped that 6,000 player figure, in fact we're hoping for a couple of thousand past that."

Although Mills acknowledges that success has its spin-offs, he argues that grass-roots sport has an inevitable boost during and after big tournaments such as the World Cup.

But he regards rugby as a special case in that it retains a clear connection between the elite and grass roots end of the sport.

"Regardless of how England does we would get more players because numbers peak during a World Cup year and the year afterwards," he said.

There is a fantastic connection between the top end and bottom end of the game that is not replicated in other sports RFU community manager Simon Mills

"My feeling is that it's probably the youth section of the game which benefits more from success of the England team than the adults.

"But this period has been enormously successful for us.

"One of the reasons has been the fantastic connection between the top end and bottom end of the game that is not replicated in other sports.

"Players like Phil Vickery are identifiable role models who come from somewhere that other people playing the game can understand.

"Phil started off as a kid playing in Cornwall for his local club at Bude then as a teenager moved down the road to Redruth.

"He played in England's age group teams and then suddenly was at Gloucester, in the England side and at Wasps leading his country at the World Cup.

"I know that a lot of people identify with the England team because of that and I know a lot of England guys are still involved in the grass roots of the game.

"Phil still has mates down in Cornwall and still visits the club.

"Other England players, like Nick Easter, are involved with junior clubs in the sense that some of them go back and coach on a fairly regular basis."

Whether the England team's success in France was down to the players or the coaching staff, the elite end is due for a period of assessement after its unexpected run to the final.

And the same can be said of the targets at the bottom end of the game.

"Our long-term targets are to grow the adult game by 12-14% by 2013," Mills added.

"But after the success of Go Play Rugby so far, it looks like we may not have been ambitious enough."

Players wishing to find their local rugby club can visit the Go Play Rugby website.