Exciting developments for rugby club

TALLAGHT Rugby Club held their AGM meeting last week with a number of exciting new developments for the club being discussed.

The Echo spoke to club spokesperson Kim Littlefield who informed on plans the Club has in the pipeline.

“Last year we had identified that going into this year we really wanted to grow the girls game.

‘Our girls numbers had kind of dropped off so our new women’s development officer was announced on Monday at the meeting.

‘She’ll be focusing a lot on that. We’re really excited, we’ll be looking to Leinster for a bit more, they have great programmes and I think we are looking to implement them next year with her leading that charge along with our youth development officer and child development officer.”

“This year we really want to focus on recruitment and building our numbers back up. If anyone reading wants to give rugby a try [excuse the pun], we’re always welcoming.

‘All sorts of sports backgrounds or even no sports backgrounds.”

“There are many sponsorship opportunities available so if there are any companies looking to support the rugby club from a sponsorship perspective, those opportunities are still available if anyone is interested.”

One of the main challenges facing the club right now is a distinct lack of permanent playing facilities with their current pitch being provided by the council but with a distinct lack of floodlights as well as basic hygiene facilities such as toilets.

“Obviously when you’re trying to build a club you need to be able to offer basic level stuff.

‘That’s not on the council, it’s right next to Firhouse road so lighting the pitch may not be in the best interest of road safety so we’re trying to think creatively about what we can do in terms of portable lights and making it a safer place to play in the winter for when it is dark, particularly for the youths and the minis who are just trying to learn how to play the game.”

On recruiting new players with the current lack of facilities Littlefield spoke about how new players may not be put off but it is harder to appeal to experienced players.

“I think if they are looking to build on their skillset and compete at the highest level, we have a really hard time keeping up with people with clubhouses and really nice pitches where you have complete control over whether or not you can play.

‘In the most desperate of winters, we can go a week [without playing] because our pitches are unplayable.

“The season prior to last, our women’s team had to play four of their home games on an astro. F

‘ortunately we had a connection and could play in Blackrock but these were on 4g which we don’t train on and it’s a totally different game. Simply because we had no control over our own pitch.

‘The council had called it off unfortunately and the alternative is you either play or concede.”

The club possesses an impressively wide catchment area with some members commuting between 45 minutes to an hour each way.

Speaking of the lack of infrastructure that the club is working with Littlefield had this to say.

“We long for facilities. There is the spirit of the club, there’s a lot of graft in it, there’s a lot of nose to the grind. Our players are very representative of the community so it doesn’t stop us but it doesn’t help us.”