Leinster rugby team for Arklow training session
PREPARATIONS are well under way at Arklow Rugby Club on the Old Dublin Road for the arrival of the Leinster Rugby team on Tuesday, August 1.
The Leinster team arrive at Arklow Rugby Club for a full open training session at 12 p.m. and will sign autographs afterwards. The club will be open at 11 a.m. with free admission and car parking and all are invited. The hotly anticipated visit has given the club a great incentive to carry out some upgrades that have been on the cards for a few years.
‘The club has been in need of repair for a number of years but between funding, availability and other priorities it simply wasn’t addressed,’ said incoming president Mamie Louth. ‘We realised there was a level of work required ahead of the Leinster visit but it sort of grew a life of its own with several members, new and old rolling up their sleeves over the past couple of weeks,’ she added.
The 2017/18 season sees Arklow Rugby Club launch its new playing surface achieved mainly with the help of a Sports Capital Grant secured in 2014.
Almost €80,000 has been invested into the pitch and it is now regarded as one of the premier rugby surfaces in the South East and one of the reasons Leinster were attracted to hold their first open training session of the 2017/18 season there. This pitch is now supported by a completely refreshed club house that has been repainted inside and outside all voluntarily by members with the paint kindly donated by local provider P Boland’s. In addition material for fencing around the pitch was donat- ed by another member and installed by volunteers. This makes club look all the more professional – an attitude the club are keen to project among existing and new members.
Exciting times certainly lie ahead for the club. This week a summer camp is being held there with up 70 kids participating daily. Going into the 2017/18 season the club boasts two men’s teams, one ladies’ team and a buoyant male and female youth structure that starts from under-sevens up.