Fleetwood Ladies bang the drum for rugby with Tubthumping video and win support of Chumbawamba

The video posted by the ladies’ team at the Melbourne Avenue club on their Facebook page shows the players singing along to Chumbawamba’s 1997 smash Tubthumping.

And it is preceded by a special message from the band’s lead singer Dunstan Bruce, who says: “Hi, this is Dunstan from Chumbawamba hoping that you are all coping in this lockdown. If you need something to cheer you up, this video of Fleetwood Ladies I can guarantee will bring a smile to your face.”

Team manager Hayley Dorning told The Gazette: “We can’t believe how brilliantly it has been received. It has been shared by 22,000 people and everyone seems to be really enjoying it.

“We have a great bunch of players. Some of us are keyworkers but a lot of the players have been furloughed and we wanted to do something to put a smile on people’s faces.

“The idea was to show what a great sport rugby is and what a fun team we are, so we thought we’d make a video that was really fun.

“We thought the lyrics of Tubthumping were perfect for a rugby team – ‘I get knocked down but I get up again, you’re never going to keep me down’. That’s what our sport is all about.”

The video shows clips of the players enjoying themselves, exercising and (in several cases) being knocked down and bouncing back.

As for the video’s celebrity introduction, Hayley explained: “One of the players knew someone who knew someone who knew Dunstan. It seemed a bit of a long shot but he was asked to be in it and he agreed.”

Although the video is first and foremost full of fun, Hayley is hoping that in the longer-term it may have more serious value in helping the club to grow.

She said: “When we get back to a bit or normality, we’re hoping the video may make some more people think about coming down and having a look at what we are doing because we offer something for everyone.

“We cater for all shapes, sizes and abilities and we’re all super-friendly, so we’re hoping to see some new faces when we return.

“We have players aged from 17 into their 50s and we have a girls’ section.

“We are quite a new team but we are coming on in leaps and bounds.

“This is our second year in the local merit league but we hadn’t played very many games before the lockdown because of bad weather.

“But we’re all excited about getting going again and hopefully the video will get some new people interested.”

You can watch the video on their Facebook page here.