The Thistle Rugby Trust is a registered charity which will be promoting the development of rugby for youngsters in schools and clubs throughout Scotland and will also manage Scottish Rugby's under-18 age-grade programme.
The Trust is designed to make investing in the game more attractive to companies and is set-up in such a way as to bring all the varying and disparate activities of age-grade rugby under the one umbrella.
The founding partners of the Thistle Rugby Trust are Lloyds TSB Scotland, Daily Record & Sunday Mail and Canterbury of New Zealand. Their combined six figure investment is being ring-fenced by Scottish Rugby to boost some of the impressive programmes which have seen an increase in participation in the game from young people.
Over the last two years the number of schools competing in the Bell Lawrie White Scottish Schools Cup has rocketed by 57% while in all Scottish Rugby's youth competitions - club and school - participation has increased by 31% over the last five years.
The funding will go specifically towards:
* young player participation and retention programmes in clubs and schools;
* the Pathway programme to identify and accelerate the best young talent;
* and under-18 age-grade representative rugby.
Scottish Rugby's Chief Executive Phil Anderton said: "Today's announcement is of major significance for the development of rugby in Scotland.
"Thanks to our three founding partners, Lloyds TSB Scotland, Daily Record & Sunday Mail and Canterbury of New Zealand we are able to make a major investment which can introduce young people to the game of rugby, encourage their participation and nurture new recruits to the adult game and accelerate the progress of the most talented youngsters.
"Whilst we have made progress in recent years in age-grade, we need to have more young people playing, more often and at a higher skill level. To deliver this we need the best people, programmes, structures and resources. The new Trust will help us achieve our goals."
Susan Rice, Chief Executive, Lloyds TSB Scotland, said youngsters' involvement in sport was crucial to the development of community spirit and the Thistle Rugby Trust was a perfect fit with Lloyds TSB's desire to give something back to the community.
Steve Samson, Director Daily Record & Sunday Mail, noted: "Let's hope that from the launch of the Thistle Rugby Trust we can produce the heroes and winners of tomorrow."
David Peyton, team sales manager (Europe) of Canterbury of New Zealand, said: "We're proud to make the jersey of the Scotland team but it's every bit as important for us to back an initiative such as the Thistle Rugby Trust."
Kenny - who was a graduate of the age-grade structure - warmly welcomed the announcement. "Support for the grassroots is key to the future for any sport and today's launch of the Thistle Rugby Trust is good news for Scottish Rugby.
"I remember being involved with the age group sides while I was still at school and it gave you something to focus on and meant you could see your route of how to get to the top of the game, all the way to playing for Scotland. The Thistle Rugby Trust will make that route all the clearer for the new generation of rugby players."
