England internationals Riki Flutey and Simon Shaw, Mayor of London Boris Johnson, former England international Will Greenwood and England Women star Maggie Alphonsi launch the RFU's touch rugby initiative © RFU

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External Links: O2 Touch - Find a club

The Rugby Football Union have launched a touch rugby initiative that they hope will help halt the alarming decline in the number of people playing the sport.

Recent figures showed that the number of adults playing at least once a week has dropped from 230,000 in 2009 to 177,900 this year and it is hoped that the O2 Touch initiative can boost participation at all levels ahead of the Rugby World Cup 2015.

England internationals Simon Shaw, Riki Flutey and Maggie Alphonsi and Rugby World Cup winner Will Greenwood were joined at the launch by Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, who has allocated £115,000 to provide Londoners with free touch rugby sessions in the workplace in a scheme called 'Touch London'.

"Rugby is a fantastic game and I want to see a big expansion of people playing it in London," Johnson told Press Association Sport. "In many parts of London people don't get the opportunity to play with an elliptical ball in the way that I think they should.

"There are lots of people like me who loved association football but didn't have the ball skills. In rugby you pick the ball up and if you have a bit of energy, you can play it. Loads of kids have benefited from it.

"I played a lot when I was younger and I enjoyed it very much. Many of my happiest moments came playing rugby, I can't deny that. Believe me, if you've played an hour and half of rugby and you've really enjoyed it, you're not going to want to go off and get involved in some gang fight.

"I want to see an increase in playing numbers and the decline could be to do with people thinking it's too physical, there's too much contact and that's why the touch element is important. We'll get people starting with a bit of touch and they'll understand how easy and painless it can be."

The RFU has lost over £1million in public funding following its failure to grow the sport at grass roots level and it is hoped their wider 'Choose Rugby' campaign will encourage people to find a club and start, restart or carry on playing rugby, either in the 15-a-side game, tag, touch or sevens.

Greenwood is deeply concerned by the drop in playing numbers and believes the variety of distractions on offer to people - including Facebook - is to blame. "In my opinion computer games and social networking are the reason for the decline," he said. "On my drive here this morning I saw a group of four kids walking into school and all of them were on a mobile phone.

"Kids are finding other things to do. When there were less distractions kids went and played sport, but there are so many distractions now. It's a huge obstacle to overcome - how do we get guys and girls off computers, Facebook and outside?

"You can build communities around sport, around rugby clubs. Rugby clubs were the Big Society happening long before anyone came up with the label. I'm hugely alarmed by the decline in numbers. I speak at rugby club dinners and see the chalk boards with the number of teams on.

"It used to go down to 10th XV sometimes, but now the stick of chalk hasn't been touched for years and the chalk marks are slowly moving up. The chalk is moving up the board and we must get the chalk moving back down the board. We want to tell everyone that rugby's not just about 25 stones, 10 second 100metre runners who charge into brick walls. It can be any age, any sex, mixed. Anyone can play."

The RFU has distributed hundreds of touch rugby training kits to affiliated clubs across the country and are encouraging everyone to get involved - Click here to find your nearest club.