Champions Ayr gear up for Super 6 involvement with university partnership

The University of the West of Scotland (UWS) and Ayr RFC have launched an ambitious new partnership designed to benefit both parties.

Ayr, who can name Finn Russell and Ali Price among their former players, are one of the clubs ready to par ticipate in Scottish rugby’s new Super 6 tournament next season.

One of the stated aims of the Super 6 is for the six selected clubs to develop their community profiles and secure partn er ships with tertiary education providers across Scotland. Ayr will tick that box with this announcement.

As part of the partnership, four UWS students will benefit from newly-created undergraduate internships which will give them the chance to work closely with Ayr across a number of areas including strength and conditioning, performance analysis and marketing. The university has a campus in Ayr and the internships will form part of the students’ degree programmes.

For Premiership and S cottish Cup champions Ayr, they will benefit from access to the university’s biomechanics lab and high-spec environmental chamb er at its Lanarkshire campus, and club officials will be able to tap into research and expertise from UWS academics in the fields of sport coaching and development and sport and exercise science.

The club are also keen to develop learning modules with UWS for their players across a variety of areas including mental health, social media training, nutrition and strength and conditioning.