Season welcome
Gibraltar Rugby is looking to further itself this year both on and off the field following what was a fantastic Season in 2015/16. Gibraltar Rugby played outside of Europe for the first time with its National Team competing against Malaysia and Singapore. The Junior section travelled to Bath to compete in a number of fixtures and the Gibraltar Vets, joined by the Development team, played a Malaysia Vets side and a leading Club side in Singapore. Closer to home the successful Scorpions Rugby Club doing the double in both League and Cup, sets them on a strong footing this season.
Whats important to highlight is not just our on field success, which we are extremely proud of, but our continued off field success. Toward the end of last season we appointed Kim Chang as our General Manager. Kim oversees the day to day development and management of the Union and heads up a 4 person 'Rugby Development Unit' consisting of Mike Milward, DoR (Seniors), Kim Oliver RDO (Juniors & Schools) and Claire Penfold (Administration).
These 4 provide the day to day back bone of the GRFU Operations supported by myself and William Collin, who has recently been appointed Rugby Operations Manager. All in all we are there to support Gibraltar's youth, senior and club sections. Gibraltar Rugby has developed its new registration portal allowing Players to register online with a launch of an update website to take place in November.
Finally we hopefully will see a newly formed Elite 7s squad taking shape with Gibraltar's players competing overseas in Spain / Portugal and UK. An overseas tour for the Youth section is on the cards and they plan to head off to Lisbon in April 2017, with the VETS section following them to Portugal in June to once again competing in EGORF - the European Golden Oldies Tournament. Finally with Rugby Europe still ongoing upcoming fixtures for the National team are being arranged.
Chad Thomson
GRFU General Secretary
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