JUNIOR REPORT: Sixth Form stars ready for Runshaw test

This began last weekend with a number of our minis and junior sides training outside, and has continued throughout this week with our junior and senior sides finally managing to train outdoors too.

Scarborough Sixth Form Academy will also be taking advantage of the good weather with a fixture against Runshaw in the latest round of the Yorkshire Plate competition - a piece of silverware that is certainly attainable for this talented group of players.

Sunday will see a return to the playing field for each of our junior sides too, with our under-13s being the only fixture at home - 11am kick-off.

Meanwhile our minis (under-sixes to under-12s) will be training as normal from 10.30am-12pm as they finalise preparations for their home tournament the following Sunday.

Sunday will also see our junior girls take part in an in-house fixture as a curtain-raiser before the Valkyries take on Harrogate at home.

It’s no secret that girls and ladies rugby is thriving at Scarborough Rugby Union Football Club, with its set-up fast becoming a hub for women’s and girl’s rugby in North-East Yorkshire.

There are a number of fantastic coaches now involved in this, Rob Hazledine and Ian Evans have both been great additions to the sides and are offering a lot of energy and knowledge, which is another reason for its continued progression.

As a result, the club now has a fully functioning girls female rugby set-up, meaning any female player that wants to play, can play (regardless of age) for the duration of her career should she want to.

This means that on Sunday morning, you’ll be able to witness boys and girls from the age of five all the way through to open age, all in the same place playing rugby here at Silver Royd.

It is truly a remarkable achievement in itself that the club is now affecting so many lives in the area on a weekly basis and this should be credited to all the volunteers and staff that have worked tirelessly to develop the club since its formation.

As more and more younger players take up the sport, there is a real need for an increase in volunteer coaches at the club.

Fortunately Scarborough RUFC is fully committed to supporting and developing its volunteer coaches and covers the cost of all coaching courses so that this can happen.

Last weekend, our club coach co-ordinator Dave Beck offered a short seminar to our minis coaches to ensure the sessions they were delivering were productive and engaging.

Our coaches do a wonderful job as it is, so we’re all very excited to see them developing as our players do too.

For those that don’t know, Scarborough RUFC also offers an elite training programme which consists of coached strength and conditioning sessions for our most gifted junior players.

All training takes place in Baron’s Fitness, which has also been nominated as one of Scarborough’s gyms of the year, and public voting for this is still taking place.

The facility has been extended over the summer and now offers high performance training equipment so that our players can become faster, stronger and more athletic.

All the training sessions are rugby specific, so the players can reach the highest possible performance level when they’re on the pitch.

The programme is only in its infancy, but has already showed huge improvements to its players and Scarborough’s junior sides.

The ever-willing and passionate staff at Barons have made this new era possible and I’m sure this will continue to grow from strength to strength in the future.

Thanks for reading,

Tomasz.