ENGLAND World Cup winning rugby star Lawrence Dallaglio was among the victors at a charity golf day at Wokefield Park.

Dallaglio’s team took the honours on countback after returning with 92 points in a four-ball stableford competition where the best two scores counted.

But the real winner on a glorious day at the Mortimer venue was his own charity, Dallaglio Rugby Works, which supports disadvantaged children excluded from education.

After more than £10,000 was raised, Dallaglio told the Chronicle: “It’s a skills and development programme that uses rugby as a hook.

"We work with 14-17 year old boys and girls who have been excluded from mainstream education and have found themselves in pupil referral units or alternative education.

"On average 3,500 children are permanently excluded from education each year, that’s 12 per day. We use rugby built into their curriculum to help them turn their lives around and get them into sustained education or employment.

“We deliver the programme in 45 schools across the country from Wales to Newcastle to the South West to Manchester and Liverpool. At the end of the year we hope to be in more than 70 schools.”

He added: “Unfortunately, around 65 per cent of those in prison were excluded from school at some point in their lives.

“I think that tells you the system is fundamentally flawed at the moment.

"These young people aren’t born bad, they just come from difficult backgrounds and they are vulnerable. What they need is support network to help them move on in their lives and that’s what our programme provides.

“I was fortunate to have a lot of support in my life and the values of rugby such as discipline, respect and enjoyment are good to pass on to young people.

“Rugby gave me so much so it’s nice to give something back.”

The event was organised by the Warren Smith Ski Academy, with all proceeds going to Dallaglio Rugby Works.

Smith, who lives in Mortimer and was former ski coach on the television series, The Jump, explained: “I helped teach Lawrence to ski many years ago and knew what great work his charity does.

"With the enormous help of Wokefield Park and Jamie Anton in particular, we managed to raise thousands of points for his worthwhile charity – and had enormous fun doing so.”

Dallaglio and Smith will have little time to rest as they are among a team of riders set to embark on an 1,800 mile cycle across Europe this weekend to raise further cash for Dallaglio Rugby Works.

They are also planning another charity golf day at Sunningdale this October.

To sponsor any of the Rugby Works events go to www.rugbyworks.com or search Twitter for @DallaglioRW or @warrensmithski