2007 - A Big Year for Rugby

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2007 - A Big Year for Rugby

THIS YEAR will bring the mighty All Blacks to Murrayfield in September. And it’s is a big year too, here in Highland Perthshire with lots of rugby planned to coincide with the commencement of the World Cup. and further plans afoot to expand our Community Rugby Academy, writes ROBIN YELLOWLEES.

The pilot phase of our Rugby Academy (which was held every Wednesday evening in Dunkeld) was run in partnership with Colin McKelvey, the Rugby Development Officer and other qualified coaches from Perthshire RFC. It was held over a 10 week block from September through to November with nine P6/P7 boys and six S1/S2 boys. The programme is designed to develop the skill base of young players and prepare them for playing at a higher level..

Young Tigers

Already we are pleased to report that a number of our Highland Perthshire players are showing up well for Perthshire RFC on Sundays, and we look forward to some of them making the next step and progressing to playing for the ‘Tayside Tigers’ Regional Youth Development Squad.

The Rugby Academy restarts in mid February and we expect the current players to be joined by four additional pupils from Pitlochry High School.

Dunkeld Tops

Talking of Pitlochry, in the last series of our Inter Primary School age Rugby Festivals (between teams from Aberfeldy, Dunkeld and Pitlochry) we witnessed a great game in the final match between Pitlochry and Dunkeld which saw Pitlochry beat Dunkeld 4 tries to 3. This was the first time in three seasons that Dunkeld Primary School had lost a match, but they still managed to cling on to top spot by virtue of their tries for and against in all matches. Phew. Its tough at the top!

Finally, a big thank you to all the parents who assisted with the Group outing in early November that saw 40 pupils travel to Perth to watch Scotland A versus Australia A at McDiarmid Park. It was a very successful night and in the view of Andrew Lawson, HPST’s Sports Development Officer who organised the trip, “It was a very satisfying experience for everyone to get the chance to see live top level rugby here on our own doorstep. The turnout tells me rugby is looking strong in the area”.

The funding of these Rugby programmes has been made possible by the generous sponsorship of Ptarmigan Sports Marketing, together with a sportsmatch award from sportscotland.
The Highland Perthshire Sports Trust is also supported by the Gannochy Trust.