Rugby is blooming with the Roses
Stafford Rugby Club are hoping to see their girls’ section grow after planting the seeds for a bright future.
The club have taken the first steps to introducing a number of teams under the Stafford Roses banner with a series of coaching sessions and festivals.
Coaches from the club teamed up with RFU community coaches to put on sessions at various secondary schools in Stafford designed to encourage participation in rugby by girls in years five, six, seven and eight.
And Stafford officials have been delighted by the response from the initiative which culminated in a festival at the rugby club.
The club are determined to provide opportunities for girls to either continue playing or take up rugby and has ambitious long term plans to develop a pathway with a senior female team at the end of it.
“We are really keen to promote girls rugby,” said junior vice-chair Pete Cooke.
“Coaches from the Roses and RFU went into a number of schools in Stafford and put on sessions for girls.
“Off the back of the coaching sessions we had two schools festivals and then a festival at the club.
“The numbers have been excellent. We had 70-80 at the first session and then 40-odd at the second one.
“And there were 60 plus at the session at the club. These are all girls that are new to the sport so that is really encouraging.”
As well as attracting new players, Cooke is also keen to see some of the club’s young girls continue playing when they move out of the mixed team set up.
“Up to year six, children play in mixed teams but from year seven they are in single sex teams,” added Cooke.
“We have some really good girls playing in our mixed rugby teams and we want to give them somewhere to go and somewhere to play when they reach year seven.
“We don’t want to lose them. The aim in the next 12-24 months is to have girls sides at under-11, 13 and 15.
“The long term aim, and it will take a while, is to have juniors sides feeding into a senior women’s side.”
Stafford are host training sessions for girls every Tuesday (6-7pm) at the club until September when they will move to Sunday afternoons (1.30-3pm) from September 2. Matches will also be played on Sundays.
Anyone interested should email stafford.roses@gmail.com or search for @staffordroses on Facebook for more information.
