Inverleith
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players, attracting sponsors and
keeping club harmony as all clubs
do. The rewarding aspects of being
at the club is the family atmosphere
and getting two teams out on a
Saturday which means we always
have a strong 1st XV.
“The general mood of the club is
on a high currently due to winning
The Tennents East Region Division
3 trophy. We started the league
campaign with a defeat away to one
of our rivals for promotion, Dalkeith
RFC, which in hindsight wasn’t a
bad thing as it then got us focussed
for the job ahead and we were then
undefeated for our remaining league
fixtures. We are now looking forward
to life in Division 2 and meeting the
challenges of this head on.
“As the season progressed and
we kept winning it had the knock
on effect of attracting new players
to the club which not only helped
us on our unbeaten run but gives
a strong starting point for the new
season. We try as a club not to
over complicate things and make
Inverleith a user-friendly location for
players, members, partners, children
and visitors.
“As a club we have recently been
awarded charitable status after a lot
of hard work from Colm McConnell.
We have a Cricket Club (Holy Cross
CC) who use our club during the
summer months and we also have a
link with Murrayfield Wanders Girls
section U15s and U18s where I am
one of the Youth Coaches. The girls
teams use our facilities during the
winter months giving them a secure
floodlit venue to train.
“Over the summer I am
organising a ladies and girls fitness/
rugby training night to encourage
not only girls to play rugby, but
ladies who want to keep fit as well.
This is being done with a view to
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getting more playing rugby, with the
intention of being initially a feeder
to Murrayfield Wanderers Ladies
Team then who knows we may
even have an Inverleith Ladies team
somewhere in the not too distant
future.
“Our biggest challenges are
player retention, stepping up a
league and the prospect of playing
better teams with larger squads than
ourselves so player recruitment will
be paramount.
“We are currently trying to
achieve Bronze Standard on the
SRU minimum operating standards
criteria and hope to get a foot in
the door at one of the local schools
to bring them rugby, I am currently
in discussion with another club to
make this happen.
“Playing numbers in rugby have
been reducing over the past few
years and many people will say that
clubs like ourselves and Edinburgh
Northern as examples will suffer
greatly
and
may
disappear
altogether. We need to change with
the times and offer the type of rugby
that players want that also fits in
with their lifestyles and not put
them in a position where they have
to choose one or the other.
“Over the next five years we
would look to be playing in the
top east regional league, continue
to put out two teams every week
and increase our playing numbers.
Inverleith would look to strengthen
our link with Ladies and Girls rugby
and make the club as a whole more
accessible to the local community.”