Progress continues on and off the park at Falkirk Rugby Club

Seniors

3 Senior Players from Falkirk Rugby Club represented Caledonia District in the Inter District Championship held last month between Caledonia, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and the Borders. Caledonia came out on top winning the championship. Falkirk players involved were Stef Yarrow, Glen Faulds and Harry Russell who also captained the side. Falkirk RFC Director Of Rugby Kenny Grieve said, “we are so proud of these players, representing your district is a huge honour and for Harry to captain that side is even more special, congratulations to them all”.

Pre-season Training has resumed this week Tuesday 6 June and will continue Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday’s.

Should anyone like to join our Senior Section please send a message to [email protected]

Mini Rugby

Our mini section held it’s annual awards day picnic last Saturday to bring the curtain down on another superb season for our Primary 1 to Primary 7 players. On a super sunny Saturday Afternoon around 400 parents, carers and players gathered at Sunnyside. Participation medals were handed out to all children in our section with a further 3 awards per year group for the Most Improved Player of the year, Players Player of the Year and Player of the year. The recipients of each award for each year group are as follows:

Primary 1

Most Improved Player of the Year – Kyle Williamson

Players Player of the Year – Freddie Graham

Player of the Year – Calan Byrne

Primary 2

Most Improved Player of the Year – Noah Towler

Players Player of the Year – James Allison

Player of the Year – Ellis McGuirk

Primary 3

Most Improved Player of the Year – Kaira McEwan

Players Player of the Year – Naomi Grieve

Player of the Year – Calum Steele

Primary 4

Most Improved Player of the Year – Stephen Hodgson

Players Player of the Year – Ben MacNicol

Player of the Year – Zach Lambert

Primary 5

Most Improved Player of the Year – Max Findlay

Players Player of the Year – Ivy Pearson

Player of the Year – Conor Hornal

Primary 6

Most Improved Player of the Year – Olivia Brickwood

Players Player of the Year – David McDowell

Player of the Year – Charlie Romanis

Primary 7

Most Improved Player of the Year – Campbell Fulton

Players Player of the Year – Tane Robertson

Player of the Year – Naomi Johnson

The Philip Skinner Award for outstanding Contribution to the Youth Section was won by Connor Hazlett for his dedication not only to his own senior training but for coaching this year’s juniors, organising senior players to participate and help when possible, ferrying players to and from training and games, imparting and sharing his rugby knowledge on our future generations and coaches and generally just being there supporting everyone involved in the minis section, a true club man who on accepting the award simply said “I just love Falkirk Rugby Club, Thank You”

Congratulations Connor, and all award winners.

The mini section also held it’s annual Water Fight Night with around 200 players, parents and coach’s running around the pitches in a good old traditional water fight. It was great to see so many young and particularly older participants having such fun and there were many, many soaked happy and smiling faces who I’m sure slept soundly that night.

Should anyone like to join our Mini Section please send a message to [email protected]

Midi Rugby

Our Joint Midi Section Secondary School Children S1 to S6 will be having their final awards/picnic afternoon this coming Saturday again hosted at Falkirk Rugby Club before both clubs go back to running their individual Midi sections this coming season. We look forward to welcoming all our Kelpies players boys and girls in what I am sure will be a great afternoon of celebration.

We held our 2nd annual Falkirk Schools U15 Cup last month. This yearly event brings together 4 Rugby Playing Schools in the Falkirk District, namely Braes HS, Denny HS, Falkirk HS and Larbert HS. There was some excellent rugby on show and congratulations to eventual winners Larbert HS, a new name on the trophy and congratulations and thanks to all participants and the staff from these schools who go above and beyond to help provide rugby in the area.

Falkirk RFC hosted a girls u14 tournament on behalf of Falkirk HS at the end of last month also which saw over 150 girls from various schools across the country compete against each other in 7 a side matches. The standard of rugby on display was superb with some standout athletes on show. The tournament was won by Balfron HS, and the trophy was presented by Hollie Howland (far right),who is a current 6th year pupil at Falkirk HS and was capped for Scotland this year and played in all 6 nations games. Huge thanks to Neil Davies from Falkirk HS who organised the whole event and coaches the girls’ sides.

Massive thanks to Paul Morgan and his amazing army of volunteers for their outstanding contribution to Midi Rugby over the last 5+ years in Falkirk Council Area, without these volunteers and Paul we would have not been able to provide club rugby for our Secondary School Children across the District.

Should anyone wish to join our Midi Section please send a message to [email protected]

Facilities Update

Since the end of the season our changing facility is going through a massive refurbishment, extension, and upgrade. It is anticipated that it will be fully operational for the start of the league season, and we cannot thank GRS Homes enough for the work they have done already, along with the many individuals, companies and Grant funders who have helped turn this dream into a reality.

SRU’s Major Capital Fund

Falkirk Council’s Community Choices programme

UK Gov’s Community Ownership Fund

Sports Scotland’s Sports Facilities Fund

Patterson’s Quarries through the Scottish Landfill Communities Fund

Scottish Gov’s Let’s Do Net Zero Communities Building Fund

In addition to our grant funding, we are still fundraising ourselves via our Buy-a-Brick initiative – see the Club’s website for details Falkirkrfc.com

General News

The club held its Annual General Meeting 2 weeks ago and all Office Bearers committed to another year in their current positions, the club will be led once again by President Bill Faulds.

Falkirk RFC in partnership with Falkirk HS are currently looking to recruit a fulltime Rugby Development Officer who will continue to be based at Falkirk HS enhancing the strong partnership we have with the school. Closing date for applications is Friday 16 June.

Falkirk RFC In Partnership with Denny HS continues to develop and grow and provide players into our Midi rugby section.

Falkirk Rugby is committed to providing a pathway for women and Girls Rugby at Falkirk RFC and we will be advertising for a senior ladies coach in the coming months to drive this commitment to fruition

Falkirk RFC are again running their Kids Summer Camp 2023 From July 17th to July 28th at Sunnyside 9am to 3pm. A fantastic kids sports camp for ages 6 to 12 years which will provide specialist rugby coaching in the mornings then multi-sports in the afternoon. The cost is £10 per day but financial assistance could be available. For sign up and enquiries contact [email protected]

Sponsorship, thank you to all our current and past sponsors, there are far too many to list but without their support we would not be able to do half of what we have achieved this or previous years. There are many opportunities for your company to get involved in supporting Falkirk Rugby Club. Should your company wish to be involved please send a message to [email protected] for the attention of Mark Crawford.

Finally, a huge thank you to the Falkirk Herald who cover our games week on week.