Member Article

Young reporter, aged 8, wins the chance to interview Sale Sharks rugby star

Rugby star Josh Charnley faced a pitch-side grilling from an eight-year-old boy after the young reporter won a competition to interview the Premiership player.

Henry Hatfield, a pupil at Navigation Road Primary School in Altrincham, was the winner of the #touchlinereporter competition run by specialist lender Together, one of the rugby club’s corporate sponsors.

The Cheadle-based finance company offered its 550-plus colleagues the chance for their children to get involved by coming up with three questions to ask the 26-year-old Sale star, with Henry claiming first place.

Henry interviewed Josh ahead of the first home game against Newcastle Falcons at the AJ Bell stadium on Friday, asking the Premiership star about his inspiration to become a rugby player and his least favourite training exercises.

Henry said: “It was my first ever rugby game, so it was awesome that I got the chance to meet Josh before the match and ask him my questions.”

Kevin Fisher, Together’s HR director, said: “We have forged a really strong partnership with Sale Sharks and were delighted to work with them on our #touchlinereporter initiative. We wanted to encourage youngsters to get creative by thinking up questions which reflect rugby’s core values and the group felt that Henry’s really stood out.

“The competition, which was set up by volunteers from our ‘Let’s get Creative’ group, was a great success and Henry did a fantastic job on the night. We are hoping that we can work with Sharks Community Trust to take the #touchlinereporter out to the wider community in the future and give even more children this amazing opportunity.”

Together, which announced a two-year-sponsorship deal with Sale Sharks earlier this year, is working closely with the Sale Sharks Community Trust and held a colleague dress-down day on Friday to raise funds for ‘In the Pack’ - the Sharks’ inclusive wheelchair rugby programme.

Together’s ‘Let’s get Creative’ group is part of the company’s wider ‘Let’s make it count’ initiative which spans charity, community and the environment.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Together .