Lismore ethos shines through lockdown

Children and young people under 17 have been allowed to play outdoor contact sport since 13 July and Lismore RFC were quick to gather their teams on the training pitch.

They have put the necessary public health measures in place and recruited a Covid-19 coordinator to take charge.

They followed Scottish Rugby's return to rugby guidance in all of this, with advice for all players, coaches and club administrators.

The young players are now back on the pitch at Inch Park Community Sports Club although they have been active online during the past few months too. They raised funds for the Royal Blind Care Home and collected supplies for the Edinburgh SE food bank. They also ran CV writing workshops for their young members,

The club reached out across the world to their Australian counterparts who share the same name and created the Lismore-2Lismore challenge which involved a virtual race running, cycling and walking the distance between the two club houses.

The club’s Youth Development Officer, Eric Jones, says doing what they could to help the local community and staying engaged with its players was vital for the club. He said: “The kids were delighted to see each other again and be able to throw a ball about.

"We’ve tried to get across the community ethos during lockdown. We’ve tried to stay engaged with everyone. We know we’re a rugby club but we always want to be a bit more than that, we want to develop people as well as rugby players, that goes for supporting family members as well. That is a key message we wanted to get across.

“The challenge started as a way of engaging our youth players with some School of Rugby outcomes during lockdown. It has been important to Lismore to get the message across that we were still here to support all our players, club members and their families despite the current restrictions."