Stirling County RFC
UPDATE (October 2017):
It's been a busy couple of years at Stirling County RFC and more and more youngsters are now playing regularly or trying rugby for the first time.
Last season we grew our numbers again within the club, across male and female youth rugby (U13 – U18) and at mini rugby (P1 – P7). Our undertaking to enter more competitions in order to allow every player to get a game was a successful one, boosting numbers and the development of players, with every player having the opportunity to play every weekend at Youth rugby and in some instances teams from our mini section travelling to 3 separate locations in order to ensure games for everyone! Whilst we were fortunate to win the national conference as a section at both male and female youth level and the national cup at U18 for boys and girls, the development and amount of time played by all our players was the real measure of success.
The schools conference competition grew in the area, with the established schools growing their player numbers, in particular Wallace High whom we worked most loosely with had a growth in numbers for boys at S1, S2 & U15 with more girls playing the game at U15 that they’ve ever had before. With the work we performed in the Wallace High cluster primary schools, they had a record number of players come forward to the taster sessions at the end of primary 7 before they moved into secondary education. With volunteer support, we were also able to assist Dunblane High and Stirling High to take part in rugby to a greater extent than they were able to in previous years and even more importantly we were able to engage in regular training and support teaching staff with team development. This season our intention is to bed in more rugby into the primary schools and we plan to support staff in being able to create sustainable contact rugby in primary schools, in particular in the Wallace, Dunblane & Stirling clusters.
In terms of numbers, our most significant growth has come in girls’ rugby: from 12 girls in total just over two seasons ago, we now have 34 in the U18s and 28 in the U15s at the club. A new U12s section has just started and we already have 12 at training. From mini to male Youth rugby we’ve seen a 10% growth in players in the past 18 months, which has coincided with the work in the schools that Friends of Scottish Rugby have assisted us with. Wallace High school has gone from 3 teams to 4 teams in the boys with a full squad now at U15 girls, where previously they had to join with other schools to make up a team. It is harder to quantify numbers at Dunblane as they have not regularly participated before, however at the end of last season they managed to get out 18 boys in an U14 match and 17 in an U16s match, both of these teams were 50:50 current club players and player trying the game for, what was for most, the first time.
Stewart Milne
Stirling County RFC
Youth Academy Manager
UPDATE (May 2016):
Structures within Scottish Rugby have changed with new ‘conferences’ being brought in at Youth rugby (S1 – U18) a structure which we have adopted locally this season, giving organised rugby to the schools within a Tier 4 structure where 3 teams from each school play every week, supported by a Tier 4B structure that allows developing schools to take part in fixtures each week. This has worked to the degree that at one point this season we had over 400 local, state school children playing rugby in one afternoon. For this area this level of rugby in local state schools has been unheralded for far too long. As part of that, we at Stirling County were able to support local schools, who have perhaps not got staff members able to dedicate as much time as they would like, in fielding teams regularly across the season. It can be confidently stated that without the help of SCRFC and FoSR neither Dunblane nor Stirling High
schools would have been able to take part this year. On top of this our opportunity to deliver sessions within primary clusters has been greatly enhanced with children taking part in both contact and non-contact rugby, learning from our coaches about nutrition and lifestyle and particularly for children in a school like Raploch Primary, have some very positive role models working with them.
In the season ahead we hope to further support our local ‘School of Rugby’ Wallace High School to further develop a programme, which whilst established, we believe we can make a positive impact on, including being able to give far more service to the attached primary schools, culminating in bringing a primary schools league back to the area. Over and above this we hope to further engage with both Stirling and Dunblane High schools and their attached cluster primaries to help them come to a point where they have the player numbers to sit at Tier 4 automatically. We are currently exploring ideas with the schools where we offer outreach opportunities to
more disengaged pupils from all the local high schools utilising the facilities and knowledge within SCRFC as well as spending more time on coach education both with staff and senior pupils in all schools, encouraging P7 pupils to work with P1 and S5/6 pupils to work with junior school and primary school pupils.
Stewart Milne
Stirling County RFC
Youth Academy Manager
Stirling County RFC (June 2015)
Stirling County RFC is in a new phase of growth, activating stronger links with our local authority partners and local schools. Next year we hope to take the game into our local primary schools on a far more regular basis providing an enjoyable experience for young people as well as working to provide CPD to the school staff. We work closely with Wallace High, Stirling High and Dunblane High in the area, with Wallace High as a School of Rugby. We aim to support them in their programmes of up-skilling staff and providing coaching expertise as well as sharing our facilities with them.
In Dunblane and Stirling there is the start of a player base but unfortunately not a ready supply of coaches. We plan to provide coaching to the school in return for which they will invest in bringing teams to competitions / festivals and from there we can set a base for the growth of rugby showing the management of the schools just what a positive impact rugby can have.
Stirling County RFC is proud to be a development club bringing the opportunity to young people to progress through the ranks of rugby. Only last season we were pleased to see Fraser Lyle progress from club rugby to a contract with Glasgow Warriors. We work hard to give all of our playing members the opportunity to excel in the sport with our 300+ playing membership including Women’s and Girls teams, stretching from P1 to Senior Rugby.
With the funding we received from Friends of Scottish rugby we have the opportunity to expand our schools programme, bringing rugby to every area of Stirling. We will be developing teams at both Secondary and Primary level, giving children in what may, traditionally have not been rugby areas, the opportunity to experience the sport. In particular the chance to experience its values, to train and play in an exciting new sport that can give them opportunities throughout their lives, be it progressing to performance sport or the chance to be a member of a club and a sport for life. We will be visiting Primary Schools with the specific aim to give children experience in playing contact rugby, safely, under the guidance of expert, qualified coaches with the opportunity later in the school year to play competitively against other schools / areas. With our local Secondary Schools we will be assisting those who have an ambition to begin and develop new teams to bed in their programmes utilising quality coaching and coach development to give local school children a full opportunity at playing rugby.
Stewart Milne
Stirling County RFC
Rugby Development Officer
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