Rugby players have visited a Twickenham primary school to talk about resilience on World Mental Health Day.

Harlequins Foundation Mettle and Quins players visited Bishop Perrin Primary School for a day of rugby-based team work with Harlequins players Luke Wallace and Sam Twomey, skills games and problem solving, followed by a classroom session encouraging the pupils to think how they deal with stress.

Mettle is a ten-week programme which aims to help children to understand the concept of resilience and equip them with a mental resilience ‘tool box’ they can use in time of stress.

Paul Wilson, ex rugby player and the Harlequins Foundation manager said: “What we hope to achieve is an overarching community for building resilience to mental health.

“We want to be a leading light in mental health, using the sport of rugby across the borough and nationally.

When the Harlequins Foundation was formed in 2015 it was primarily a school programme, but following its success the vision is expanding.

Mr Wilson said: “We teach them how to manage your emotions, what your support network is and identifying life stresses.”

He added: “We want to be a leading light in mental health, using the sport of rugby across the borough and nationally.

“When the foundation was formed we needed a strategy to set ourselves apart from others; we set a clear strategy in terms of age group and we did it with the help of universities, schools and psychologists.

With top-of-their-game rugby players often relocating countries, there are many stresses that come with the territory of being a professional athlete.

Mr Wilson commended the attitude of Harlequins’ own players when it came to supporting each other through tough times.

He said: “The boys are really supportive of each other, if something happens in the press they have each other’s back and we have a psychologist on board too.”

Mr Wilson added: “Personally, my wife has suffered through depression and chronic fatigue, it took three years to get through it. My sister has suffered depression and anxiety too. I understand the processes that have to be put in for recovery.

“Mental health affects everybody, be that yourself or a friend, family member or colleague… there is a huge amount of support that is out there, through charities such as Mind or the NHS.’’

Last year the Harlequins Foundation piloted METTLE in four local primary schools over a 8-week period, engaging with a total of 165 pupils.

During the 2017-2018 academic year they aim to deliver the programme to primary schools across the borough of Richmond upon Thames, reaching over 2,000 year six pupils.