Kate Middleton has taken over Prince Harry’s old roles as patron of the Rugby Football Union and the Rugby Football League.

The Duchess of Cambridge has a ‘long-standing passion for sport’ and was given the royal patronages by the Queen.

It makes Kate the first royal family member to officially receive one of Harry’s patronages since he stepped down, and it comes ahead of the Six Nations tournament this weekend.

Kate’s new affiliation with England Rugby puts her in direct competition with Prince William, who is the Welsh Rugby Union’s patron.

The duchess is expected to become the Princess of Wales one day – the first since Diana – and she has supported Wales at matches in the past.

In 2015, she backed Wales along with thousands of fans during their World Cup clash against England at Twickenham.

Kate sported the Welsh colours and sang the Welsh national anthem, while Harry wore an England rugby shirt with the message ‘Carry Them Home’.

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The Cambridges are already known for their friendly rivalry with one another, particularly during on-pitch sporting engagements.

Kate, 40, grew up watching England rugby games with the Middleton family.

A source said: ‘The duchess has happy memories of watching rugby matches with her family as a child.’

The duchess’s sister, Pippa Matthews, opened up about the family’s love of rugby for Vanity Fair in 2014.

She wrote: ‘Rugby was a big thing in our family, and the focal point was international matches, which were often played on Saturday afternoons and were as much social as sporting occasions.

‘We’d plan our weekends around the matches.’

She added: ‘If we lost, my dad would be in a state of despair for the rest of the afternoon, as if he’d actually lost the game himself.’

It has long been reported that the duchess, seen as a safe pair of hands by the Queen, would be filling the gap left by Harry when he was stripped of the roles in February last year.

The duke is a passionate rugby fan and celebrated with England when they won the rugby union World Cup in 2003.

He has acted as RFU patron since 2016, and patron of RFL since 2017, taking over the roles from his grandmother.

After Megxit, he initially retained the positions and wanted to keep them.

But he was later stripped of all his royal patronages, along with his honorary military appointments, after talks with the Queen and senior royals.

A source at the time said Harry had ‘absolutely, no question’ wanted to keep the roles he lost.

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