Secondary School Rugby
The Rugby World Cup has sparked City of Derry Rugby Club into promoting Rugby in every Secondary School in the City for the first time. The promotion of the game for the next seven weeks will see wall to wall coverage through every media outlet as hopefully Ireland march towards a World Cup Final for the first time.
City of Derry RFC sees the opportunity at this time to promote Boys and Girls Rugby and they feel at Year 8 Level is the best place to start. If children take to rugby in their first year at Secondary School then they can take it through their school life and leave a legacy for the classes that come after them.
City of Derry has Community Rugby Officer Nathan Deeney going into the schools coaching as part of the curriculum since last week. Nathan has been working for the Ulster Branch (IRFU) for the last few years and has great experience of Coching Children. The initial coaching will be noncontact and will culminate with a Boys and Girls Secondary Blitz Competition just before the World Cup Final at Halloween.
The Schools that are availing of the Development Officer are Thornhill College, St Mary’s, St Cecilia’s, Lumen Christi, St Columbs, St Josephs, St Brigid’s and Strabane Academy. The schools with their own Coaches that are part of the project are Foyle, Lisneal and Oakgrove.
It is hoped that when the children have taken to rugby they will assimilate into the Youth Structure at City of Derry Rugby Club. They then can avail of the Busses that run every Wednesday night to training from the Cityside and Waterside to Judges Road and then get selected to play games and represent the Club every Saturday throughout the Provence.
