The club continued its long standing tradition of working closely with the local schools when Berwick and Tweedmouth Middle Schools ' U12 teams met in a closely fought clash, the former winning by just two points. The club is very active in the schools within the local community especially in playing tag rugby with the younger children and contact with the older pupils.
"We are so very grateful to the schools for supporting us by introducing youngsters to the game," said Club Press Officer Steve Newman "In fact we have a tag tournament starting shortly for many schools in the borough coming from schools in rural areas such as Belford as well as the town."
Berwick Middle school U12 team with teacher Glen Bird, Dougie Hall (Berwick Rugby Club's School Liaison Officer) and David Dun, from the club’s youth section coaching team who refereed the match
Berwick rugby club's production line of young players gaining international honours was recently extended by Guy Skivington-Jones. Guy, who has been playing rugby at Berwick since he was six, was a member of the Scotland U17 squad who triumphed over England, Belgium and Wales at the Millfield Festival in Somerset in April.
Berwick Rugby Club's unique distinction of being England's most northerly rugby club and playing in the Scottish leagues was exemplified when over 200 players and officials gathered for the club's annual dinner. The club has had a good year, with representative honours at senior and junior level from players both sides of the Border, as it maintains its close links with local schools and as a hub for social activity in the community.
Renowned as ‘the Greens’, Hawick RFC recently announced plans to live up to their name and become the greenest rugby club in the world.
The Greens are currently conducting a feasibility study with a view to generating electricity from the nearby River Teviot using a fish and eco-friendly Archimedean screw turbine to harness the river’s natural power, to generate green electricity which the club can then sell on to the national grid.
The club is also investigating the potential for a district heating scheme using ‘Biomass’ at Mansfield Park. Using wood chips – a fuel that is abundant around Hawick – Biomass is a clean technology for producing renewable energy from living and recently dead biological material that can be used as fuel or for energy production, without the need for fossil fuels.
As Donnie McLeod, Hawick’s president, explained, “We have suffered directly from the effects of climate change and the impact that peak oil has on our ever-increasing energy costs. In these harsh economic times, when traditional sources of income are shrinking, this is essential for the future of the club and the game of rugby in these parts.
“Not only will we save hundreds of tonnes of carbon emissions, we will also be able to generate new sources of sustainable income by selling the surplus energy produced. Wearing our famous green shirts now means we will be tackling climate change head on as well as our opponents on the pitch.”
The ambitious plans go beyond investigating green energy production as a recent energy audit, conducted at Mansfield Park by the Energy Savings Trust, has identified over £10,000 of energy savings. Club members have been advised of schemes to save money through insulation, a fact that was emphasised at the Green Day launch of the initiative by a team of surveyors who displayed thermal images of body heat loss from spectators on a giant plasma screen. Taking the green message to youngsters, the club has also set up a new mini Greens section the ‘Hawick Eco Warriors’.
Thermal image of body heat loss from spectators
Scottish Rugby regional development manager for the Borders – and Mini Greens coordinator – Brian Renwick, said “While we have an excellent system for kids to develop into rugby players, this new mini section is just another cog in the green machine – as well as all the other eco-friendly plans, the Eco Warriors will save the kids’ parents petrol by not having to drive them to other Border towns on Sunday mornings.”
Uddingston Rugby Club’s youth sections have been able to invest in new kit and equipment thanks to a new sponsorship agreement with local firm Trucktec Ltd and support from the Scottish Government funded SPORTSMATCH scheme.
Mini section co-ordinator Martin Quinn advised, “The sponsorship from Trucktec has allowed us to provide every player in the youth teams with waterproof training tops at no cost to the player or family. This furthers our desire to see the cost of participation removed as a barrier to young people getting involved with playing rugby.”
Obtaining the SPORTSMATCH award has allowed the club to ensure that all the youth teams have suitable training equipment, appropriate for their size and age, ensuring safe participation. In addition, the funding will be used to ensure that all the club’s youth coaches have attended the relevant SRU training courses and obtained the appropriate levels of accreditation. With over 140 young boys and girls playing youth rugby at Uddingston every weekend, the new equipment will help ensure the club’s growth over the coming seasons.
Over 500 rugby players descended on the six pitches of Broughton Rugby Club for the inaugural Spire Murrayfield Hospital Universities and Colleges Cup Finals in March. Over 40 teams entered six separate 15, seven and ten-a-side men’s and women’s cup competitions.
Player retention at the 17-24 age band is a key Scottish Rugby objective with the new cup finals day being seen as the first of many events created to address the player drop-out at that crucial age.
Universities, colleges, medical societies and the armed forces came together for the first time at varying levels of ability and experience. The more practiced individuals focused their efforts on the invitational tournament while more relaxed and fun rugby was played in the extremely popular intramural competitions.
Scottish Rugby’s development manager (17-24 year olds), Lindsey Booth, said, “We’ve chosen a series of one day tournament cups because it means you don’t have to play for the entire season, it’s 7-a-side, you can get together with your mates and play a whole load of rugby for one day at one big venue.”
Edinburgh University entered an impressive 15 teams in the competition. While their top sides took second place in the invitational Scottish Student Premier Cup and the 15-a-side BUCS Scottish Conference Cup Final, the numerous intramural sides came away with three trophies from the remaining four tournaments on the day.
Rugby clubs across Scotland have been awarded a gift of rugby kit from Scottish Rugby and community rugby sponsor Scottish Hydro Electric.
In the second year of the three-year £90,000 Kit for Development initiative, the sponsor is providing rugby clubs across Scotland with £30,000 worth of rugby kit to help grow the game by encouraging more players in their youth sections. In addition to the 60 clubs selected last year, a further 60 clubs will now be awarded with a £500 kit package of their choice - meaning that in the two years of the initiative, two thirds of the total number of full associate member clubs in Scotland (158) have been rewarded.
Clubs choose from six £500 kit packages which include essential items such as balls, tackle bags, rucking shields, pumps, cones and whistles.
Kit recipients and kit option taken :
Highlands and Islands
Lochaber, Strathspey, Ross Sutherland, Shetland and Stornoway
Grampian
Moray, Aberdeen University, Deeside, Huntly, Westdyce and Gordonians
Tayside and Fife
Crieff, Howe of Fife, Blairgowrie, Panmure, Kirkcaldy, Madras, Waid Academy, Glenrothes, Kinross and Morgan Academy
Central
Stirling University
Edinburgh and Lothians
Boroughmuir, Dalkeith, Lismore, Murrayfield Wanderers, Watsonians, Heriot's, Penicuik, RHC, Leith and Stewart’s Melville
Borders
Earlston, Gala YM, Hawick Harlequins, Hawick Linden, Selkirk, Walkerburn, Hawick YM, St Boswells and North Berwick
Glasgow North
Oban Lorne, Biggar, Clydebank, Isle of Mull, Hamilton, Allan Glens, Helensburgh, Cambuslang and Glasgow Hawks
Glasgow South
Greenock Wanderers, Cumnock, Isle of Arran, Annan, Moffat, Newton Stewart, Birkmyre, Whitecraigs and Paisley
Since launching earlier this season, 200 state secondary schools have signed up to the Schools’ Rugby Champions initiative, sponsored by Scottish Widows Bank.
The Rugby Champions initiative aims to increase the amount of rugby played in state secondary schools while rewarding the dedicated school teachers who give up their spare time to take extra-curricular rugby.
It operates by rewarding the school’s registered Rugby Champion with personal coaching kit, and provides the school with specialist rugby equipment for coaching and training – providing additional kit in line with growing levels of participation; increasing numbers of boys and girls teams; participation in local and national events; and building links with local rugby clubs through the development officer network.
As part of Scottish Widows Bank’s sponsorship of the programme, they have teamed up with Scottish Rugby to launch a Scotland Rugby Savings Account. Opening an account directly supports the growth of grass-roots rugby in Scotland as Scottish Widows Bank will donate a percentage based on each Scotland Rugby Savings Account balance to the Rugby Champions programme each year.
Of the 200 schools that have signed up, 122 have already achieved the Bronze award; 53 have achieved the Silver award; and 19 schools have been awarded the Gold standard.
Carrick Academy in Ayrshire, for example, was recently awarded the Rugby Champions Gold standard in recognition of the extensive programme of boys’ and girls’ rugby that teacher Gordon Brown has built up over the past few years, supported by the Ayr RFC Development Officer.
Neil Carrie, Project Development Manager for Scottish Rugby said: “Rugby Champions provides us with a means of thanking the committed teachers who have kept rugby alive and thriving in many state secondary schools over the years; and to provide incentives for established and emerging schools to grow and develop further.”
