Thank you Andrew,
This is a very exciting day - just 100 days until the start of the Rugby World Cup. We are here to send the Webb Ellis Trophy off on its journey around the UK & Ireland.
This tour will enable rugby fans from across the country to play their part in the build up to the Tournament.
Rugby is a game built on values – respect, pride, team work and discipline. In 100 days' time, England and Cardiff will play host to an incredible festival of rugby with the world's best players, the world's best teams and of course the world's greatest fans demonstrating these values.
As we have shown with the Olympic, Commonwealth and Invictus Games, we are a nation of great hosts; a nation that seizes the moment. The world will be expecting us to deliver and I know we won't disappoint.
I have no doubt the British public will make every nation feel at home and we will provide the best possible welcome to the 20 teams, and hundreds of thousands of fans coming to the UK.
This tournament – the most significant moment in English Rugby since that night in Sydney in 2003 – has the ability to broaden the reach of the game and deliver a long lasting legacy for the sport.
With 48 matches spread across the country, I hope that every community can be part of this tournament and celebrate the game of rugby.
I would now like to welcome the chauffeur who will kick off the first leg of the Trophy Tour in Scotland - someone, who wanted to be a footballer, and perhaps should have been. But he is a man with whom the Cup is in safe and familiar hands, World Cup winner in 2003, Will Greenwood.
