Central & West Lothian -
During the first school term there has been a lot of rugby activity in
West Lothian
. The Deans Primary Cluster enjoyed four weeks of rugby coaching culminating in a tag festival held at Livingston Rugby Club with 160 pupils taking part. This was the second session of rugby for some schools as they had participated in FSA sessions earlier in 2009.
There has been a great response to curriculum delivery in the secondary schools which has resulted in the first ever game between James Young and Whitburn. Outside school time there have been three festivals arranged which have been well attended including a very successful S3/4 7s tournament which was won by James Young.
The ESSP (Excellence in School Sport Programme) has been running since August. The purpose of the programme is to give talented individuals extra practice and support in a high performance environment. Selected S5 and S6 pupils from across West Lothian have been taking part in twice weekly rugby sessions led by PJ Butler (Linlithgow
CDO
) and Craig Bolan (Livingston
CDO
) as well as getting specialist support in strength & conditioning, sport psychology and nutrition. The pupils are fortunate enough to have educational support as part of the programme and recently attended an interactive workshop on ‘Confidence in Sport’ delivered by ESSP sport psychologist Katie Sinnott.
In Clackmannanshire the rugby coaches heard recently from Scottish rugby legend Gregor Townsend at a Positive Coaching Workshop in
Lornshill
Academy
.
Throughout his presentation,
Scotland
’s attack coach highlighted the importance of a positive mentality towards coaching youngsters’ rugby, urging the coaches in the room to motivate and inspire their players. “I believe a coach’s main goal should be to get the best out of their players,” he said.
Gregor enlightened the coaches from Alloa RFC and Hillfoots RFC on the importance of positive coaching throughout his career. Gregor commented, 'I had coaches who encouraged me to learn and make mistakes, because that’s the only way you will improve.”
The
PCS
workshop which was delivered by Clackmannanshire Rugby Development Officer, Ben Hanvey also commented, 'The evening was a great success and having Gregor Townsend there to enforce the importance of Positive Coaching Scotland in our sport was very motivational for the coaches in Clackmannanshire.
November saw the first of the competitive Central Festivals, and in true Scottish winter fashion the weather had a big part to play. The festival at
Falkirk
was the only one to go ahead with Grangemouth looking more like a swimming pool than a rugby pitch! Teams from Falkirk,
Paisley
, Cumbernauld, Strathendrick and Hillfoots all fielded teams from P4-P7 and all enjoyed the break in bad weather to play some fantastic rugby.
Other news from
Falkirk
saw five of the secondary schools competing in the Brewin Dolphin Scottish Schools Cup, with the Bo’ness/Grangemouth combined team reaching the third round and Falkirk High still in the Cup tournament awaiting their next match against Morrison’s Academy. Blair Skipper was appointed as the Grangemouth RFC development officer in November and will focus on increasing the participation and rugby profile at club by working closely with the local primary schools and Grangemouth High.
In Stirling the
Bannockburn
, McLaren and Stirling clusters have all had successful festivals at the end of their four week block of tasters sessions delivered by the SVQ’s from
Bannockburn
, McLaren and Strathendrick.
The kids that took part in each of these festivals displayed got the chance to sample six different rugby stations that tested their skills they learned during the taster sessions held within their schools. The
Bannockburn
and Stirling Cluster Festivals were hosted by Bannockburn RFC. Bannockburn Rugby Club has also been busy supporting sessions at
Bannockburn
High School
. There have been nine players in all from the S1/S2 year coming down to training and have attended the Central Festivals over the last two months. |
