´óÏó´«Ã½

With the 2011 RBS Six Nations tournament due to kick off with the crucial Wales versus England fixture next week, ´óÏó´«Ã½ Cymru Wales will be suggesting we are "born for rugby" in Wales as the central theme of the now iconic TV promotions for the tournament.

Over the years the promotions broadcast across ´óÏó´«Ã½ One Wales and ´óÏó´«Ã½ Two Wales have become almost as anticipated as the Six Nations itself. In previous years we've followed the antics of the Scrum 4 crew, seen the team get animated in Henry's Heroes and watched as "Spike" interacted with his rugby heroes. This year, the promos will feature a number of youngsters with special rugby skills, which come to light during the course of each promotional clip.

The set-ups for the promos include two bewildered traffic officers looking at pictures from a speed camera set off by a young "Shane" as he runs to the shops and a man putting a shutter up over his windows to protect them from the balls kicked in his garden by a young S Jones.

Phil Higginson, ´óÏó´«Ã½ Wales' Head of Promotions and Branding, said: "This year, we thought it would be good to focus on the key skills that our players need and see how these would relate to real life situations for the players as youngsters.

"We hope the series of promos will help get the nation in the mood for the Six Nations and help us all celebrate our shared love of rugby."

Some of the promos were filmed at Radnor Road Primary School in Canton, Cardiff, and the head teacher of the school, Mrs Ann James, says it was a good experience for the children.

"The children have really enjoyed it – they like anything that's a bit different. It's just bizarre, really – there have been so many people in school and there's so much going on and it's incredible to think that something that's going to be 20 seconds long has to have that amount of effort going into it."

Rugby and sport in general is certainly something which is on the agenda at Radnor Road, says the head teacher.

"We grab every opportunity we can sports-wise with our children," says Ann. "We use Thompson's park quite a lot and the Blues come in and do some coaching with us, as do Cardiff City, as well. In fact, quite a number of our children were given some Blues tickets before Christmas for a game. So we do encourage them as much as we possibly can."

Ahead of the exclusive live coverage of the Wales versus England Six Nations opening game across ´óÏó´«Ã½ Wales TV, radio and online, on Friday 4 February, ´óÏó´«Ã½ Wales is also offering rugby fans a number of special programmes looking forward to the tournament.

The programmes kick-off with a Scrum V Six Nations Preview, with Jason Mohammad, on ´óÏó´«Ã½ One Wales on Sunday 30 January, including a full preview of the tournament and special features looking forward to Wales' 2011 Six Nations campaign.

On ´óÏó´«Ã½ One Wales on Thursday 3 February, Chris Corcoran presents the first of two special programmes, Wales And The Five Other Nations – The England Game, taking a sideways look at this famous fixture which has generated so much passion over the years.

From the games of the Eighties with stripy bobble hats, Bill McLaren's commentary and supporters running on the pitch, to the professional era of today, Chris presents his personal take on growing up with the Five, now Six, Nations Rugby Championship. 

´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio Wales will have a full preview of the Wales v England Six Nations opening game in Scrum V Radio with Gareth Lewis and guests on Thursday 3 February. There is also a weekly podcast of the best from the show available from the .

NP