Kate apparently said ‘when you are four-and-a-half you just want to get the ball and run in any direction’ (Picture: Getty Images)

The Princess of Wales has revealed that her four-year-old son is ‘mad about rugby’ and loves running around doing the tag version at school.

Prince Louis loves the sport alongside big brother Prince George and sister Princess Charlotte – and it’s game on in the Wales household as the whole family are ‘always slightly competitive with each other’.

Kate said she even jumps around on the trampoline with her children before taking them to school, as she joined England’s wheelchair rugby league team to celebrate their World Cup title.

As patron of the Rugby Football League, she hosted a reception for the team at Hampton Court Palace on Thursday to mark the victory in November’s tournament – England’s first since the inaugural competition in 2008.

The mum-of-three said she, William and their children had watched the final on television, in which England narrowly defeated France 28-24.

She laughed as she told the England team: ‘You’ve set the bar high haven’t you? Which is good.’

Asked whether her children were interested in rugby, she said: ‘We’re always slightly competitive with each other.

‘They all love sport and Louis is mad about rugby. They are at an age where they just love running around.’

Adorable Prince Louis is known for being energetic (Picture: Chris Jackson Collection)

The Princess of Wales hosts a reception for the England Wheelchair Rugby League team in recognition of their success at the recent Rugby League World Cup (Picture: PA)

The group gathered in the Garden Room, at Hampton Court Palace, London (Picture: PA)

Kate replaced Harry as patron of the Rugby Football League (Picture: PA)

The princess added: ‘I do it all: whenever I can squeeze in exercise I do, even jumping on the trampoline with the children before school.’

The England players invited the Wales family to go down and show off their competitive sides in training with them.

Smiling Kate replied: ‘I’d love to come and play. There’s no excuse now. We’re going to have to have a family training session.’

Kate took over the Duke of Sussex’s role as England’s rugby league patron in February last year, and her appearance today comes after Harry made explosive claims about the royals in his memoir.

She spoke to players, their partners and the coaching staff in the palace’s garden room before posing with the World Cup trophy.

The princess then joined the full team for a squad photograph, saying: ‘I’m really proud and really grateful we got this opportunity, and best of luck for the training and the season and I promise I’m going to come and see you for some games.’

Head coach Tom Coyd said Kate told him that Louis in particular was a fan of the sport.

He said: ‘She said Louis is doing tag rugby at school. She was saying that it is quite basic at the minute, that he is just getting to grips with the passing and the running around.

‘But when you are four-and-a-half you just want to get the ball and run in any direction.

‘She actually said that he recognised quite a lot of the crossover with the rugby that he is doing because in tag rugby you have tags on your hips and in our sport we have tags on our shoulders. I just think she and her family connected really well.’

She said her family was ‘always slightly competitive with each other’ (Picture: PA)

The England team has invited the royals for a training session (Picture: PA)

The Princess of Wales with Josie Hill (left), James Simpson and coach Tom Cold (right) (Picture: PA)

Coyd added: ‘She said it would be great for us to go and do an engagement session at the school where her children attend.’

England player James Simpson, who retired after the World Cup, said he was visited by King Charles in hospital in 2009 after losing both his legs above the knee in an IED explosion in Afghanistan, where he was serving as a lance corporal in the Yorkshire Regiment.

Simpson said: ‘That is what started my journey really of getting into wheelchair rugby league three-and-a-half years later and that was a huge turning point for me.

‘It gave me that teamwork, that camaraderie that I lost when I got injured.

‘Going out there in your England shirt and singing the national anthem is absolutely incredible for me as an ex-soldier.’

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Kate said she even jumps around on the trampoline with her children before taking them to school.