Girls have a ball at Biggar Rugby Club Hunt for more players and coaches to continue success
Biggar Rugby Club are on the lookout for talented players, volunteer coaches and general helpers to continue the work they are doing in the women’s game.
The Hartree Mill club’s under-18s side has just enjoyed a hugely successful season, which is the culmination of seven years’ hard work by development officers and volunteer coaches.
Hard on the heels of Biggar Girls’ under15s winning the Scottish Cup in 2011 came the arrival of Calum Taylor as development officer.
Starting a girls’ after-school club in 2012 with six or seven S1 pupils coincided with Charlie Court moving from Wales to Biggar.
She helped with training sessions and before long took on full responsibility for coaching, and recruited others to help.
Calum then went on to launch the School of Rugby at Biggar High School in 2013/14 and Biggar saw the number of girls training at the club start to rise.
That section now boasts over 50 girls and ladies, with teams at under-12, 15 and 18 and a development ladies’ side.
The club also claims to be one of the first Academies in Scotland to actively encourage girls to enrol.
In 2015 the under-15 team entered the National Club competition – the pinnacle of girls’ rugby in Scotland – and, guided by Eric Shearer they won the cup, which was repeated in 2016 and 2017.
Last season started with the Mitsubishi Mirage Conference League competition, and Biggar were successful in sharing the top spot with Stirling, with each team winning and losing the away tie.
The cup competition which followed promised to be a cracker, with Biggar securing the win, and Sarah Denholm named player of the match.
Biggar then went on to win the National 7s title, defeating Stirling to take the prize.
Denholm and club-mate Feebi Robinson were selected for the training squad at the SRU’S Home Nations 7s tournament for under-18 girls, and Emma Orr, an under-15 Biggar player, was asked to join the squad as a young apprentice.
Sarah was selected for both home and away ties, played in every tie throughout the tournament and scored a couple of tries.
She said: “It was a fantastic experience and great to be able to play and get to know other team members.
“Pulling on the Scotland shirt for the first time was one of the proudest moments for me and my family.
“Biggar RFC has been part of my life for many years and I owe everything to the coaches and the Academy, managed by Nic Humphries, without whom I would never have achieved this success.”
Sarah, Feebi and Emma recently played in the Thistle v Saltires match at Murrayfield as the Fosroc Academy programme of matches for the boys came to its conclusion.
Emma scored a couple of tries for the Saltires, who sneaked a win over Thistle, for whom Sarah and Feebi starred.
If you would like to give girls’/ladies’ rugby a try, they take any ages from five to adult. For more information, email Tammy Mitchell at dtdkn.5@btconnect.com.