Thereisa pathway tothesru

While Steven Meenagh has been tasked with helping Hamilton’s coaches and youngsters to advance, he’s not wholly averse to the concept himself.

His predecessor at Hamilton Rugby Club, Al Falconer, is now working with Scottish Rugby, and Steven says there is a pathway to follow, but only if you work really hard.

Steven has been doing that for years and says he will wait and see how it unfolds. However, for now he is totally dedicated to improving Hamilton.

He said: “Scottish Rugby has always been good. They’ll look at both what you’ve done through education, what’s your experience, how much have you done on the ground, working with clubs, and the close relationship Hamilton have with Scottish Rugby is brilliant.

“The SRU is really happy with what the club is doing, so they’re in contact as much as possible to find out how they can keep improving it.

“You have that link with the union straight away and there are regular emails with Scottish Rugby about the programmes we’re running. I definitely think there is a pathway there to push through if you work hard enough, which I’ve obviously done.

“If you’re working hard and showing your initiative to grow the sport then there is definitely a pathway there.”

Steven admits he jumped at the chance to join Hamilton when Falconer left. It also helped that the South Lanarkshire side had been awarded SRU Club of the Year last season.

He said: “I’ve known Hamilton Rugby Club for a long time. I’ve been a development officer and I knew Al Falconer.

“When I saw the post jumped straight at it.

“The club, the way they sell themselves, their image that they’re always looking to be at that next level – I thought it looked like a really good place to be and work and somewhere that you could really stamp your mark.

“After speaking to Al, he told me it was a really good club to come to, a really good place to show what you can do in the development industry.

“It shows what Al has done that he’s off to the high heights of Scottish Rugby.”

Steven continued: “I’ve known the club. I’ve played against them when I was younger and it has always been a club you know are always pushing to improve.

“As a development officer I jumped at an opportunity like this, to get back into a club. The easy answer is that I saw it going up on the Scottish Rugby website and thought ‘brilliant, let’s apply for that!’

“Coming to a club like Hamilton and the way they run it... they have a community team out there, coaches out just now in primary schools, so you’re doing that bit of management. The size of the club and the amount of events they do, there are ways to hone in on your skills that aren’t just rugby development, whether it’s a mini festival or a beer festival or fireworks festivals.

“There is a lot going on off the pitch, and I think definitely if you work hard enough, there’s a pathway there to move on up to Scottish Rugby.” going up I