Welcome to this latest edition of TEAMtalk as we eagerly anticipate all the thrills, spills and new-boots-and-gumshields action of this forthcoming rugby year.
There’s no such thing as the off season, in reality, with so much development work happening during the summer months throughout the country. The annual Struan camp once again took place to identify and develop talented players in the first step of potential selection for our age grade squads. I was delighted to have the chance, once again, to visit the camp, meet the players and coaches and see just how much hard work goes on behind the scenes to ensure over 200 boys enjoy a memorable and demanding week.
Lots of other camps were staged at a local level by Scottish Rugby’s development officers for kids during their summer break, nurturing talent in some and introducing others to the delights of our great game.
Scottish Rugby and clubs have been working hard pre season to enhance their relationships with help offered at both a practical level on how some clubs can boost their profile and on a financial front with ticket offers and funding initiatives, many of which you can read about here.
I’d like to wish all players, coaches, referees, volunteers and supporters the very best for an exciting and successful season.
As a new season kicks off, we welcome 2009/10 with plenty of new, exciting developments in Scottish rugby.
Our efforts to secure a wider audience for our sport, in broadcast terms, came to fruition earlier this month with the announcement that Celtic Rugby, Scottish Rugby and STV have entered into a new partnership to bring viewers television coverage of the Magners League for the forthcoming season. The deal means that all the action from the League, involving Edinburgh and Glasgow Warriors, will feature on a new one-hour highlights show at 5.30pm on Sundays called STV Rugby.
At grass roots level, Scottish Rugby has made an extra £100,000 available to help Scotland’s clubs cover the cost of match official expenses. In partnership with Scottish Hydro, Scottish Rugby has also allocated £60,000 to the new Scottish Hydro Club Facilities Fund, which offers rugby clubs up to £2000 matched-grant funding to finance their own club improvements. In all, this takes our annual investment in the club game to around £1.7m.
Scottish Rugby’s contribution to the national purse was heralded, too, with the recent announcement that events at Murrayfield Stadium were worth £130million to the Scottish economy last season.
On the team front, we welcomed Andy Robinson to the post of Scotland national head coach and, more recently, Rob Moffat as Edinburgh Rugby head coach. The full coaching teams are now in place and, along with Glasgow Warriors, we anticipate an exciting autumn of Test, Magners League and Heineken Cup action. With the Bank of Scotland Corporate Autumn Tests in sight, Scottish Rugby’s new commission based ticket initiative also allows rugby clubs to reap the financial rewards of supporting these high-profile matches at Murrayfield.
We look forward to welcoming Fiji, Australia, Argentina and all of you to Murrayfield in November and thank you for your continued support – at all levels and in all capacities – of rugby in Scotland.
Welcome to this latest edition of TEAMtalk as we eagerly anticipate all the thrills, spills and new-boots-and-gumshields action of this forthcoming rugby year.
As a new season kicks off, we welcome 2009/10 with plenty of new, exciting developments in Scottish rugby.