Stewartry
Rugby Club
Chatting with Robin Austin .
Stewartry Rugby Club was restarted 50 + years ago and I played in the first season . After playing for 7 years I had some time off from the club and returned to coach my son Roberts team mates from minis up through all the age groups . Stewartry today have a youth structure from minis up through to under 18s , we have 29 girls playing between U14 , U16 and U18 . Our Rugby development officer goes in to all the local schools to teach and leads the youth section of the club .
Covid has been a challenge at the club with seasons disrupted , our gym closed down and social activity coming to halt . We are however up and running again and numbers coming back to rugby are strong . Particularly pleasing has been our ability to run a seconds team this year which will be invaluable in transitioning young players in to senior rugby .
Our season has started well in both men ’ s and women ’ s teams and good rugby being played in our age group teams . Socially this season has also started well with some very busy nights in the clubhouse . After Covid it is really good to blow off some steam . Having a successful ladies team makes the club complete and adds a huge resource to the running of the club and the social life of the club . We depend on the efforts of volunteers and we are very lucky to have good people helping to keep things moving . There have been some people who have found covid difficult but hopefully they will return soon and of course we need new faces on the committee .
We have spent the covid period positively with time spent on improving our facilities and it is good to see our grounds looking so well . We have also put up some flood lights on our seconds pitch which so far have been good for training and hopefully will allow more flexibility with games at nights which will assist with having more games with our neighbouring clubs , which has been more difficult to schedule with time taken up with league rugby .
The lights will also help in transitioning young players and hopefully will allow regional rugby to get going again after a significant absence from our rugby calendar .
Our mission statement is about opportunities , friendships , resilience and wellbeing . Rugby opportunities only last for a relatively short period of time . The others can last a lifetime .
Going forward we plan to extend our gym to allow more space for classes for young people , older people , the less fit or overweight and people with physical difficulties .
Alongside the gym we want to build a social space
Robin Austin , 3rd from the left on back row .
Heads held high in defeat , the Stewartry players acknowledge the support of their fans after a brave Murrayfield performance .
and hub which can facilitate more social activity around the club . Alongside the social space we hope to form a garden where our community can spend time with others and get the satisfaction of making plants grow .
Finally we are fortunate to have charitable organisations who help us to get these things done and we are extremely grateful for their support . We are also extremely grateful to our sponsors for their continuing support without which we would struggle to make ends meet .
Covid allowing we hope to celebrate our 50th anniversary in summer of 2022 .
Glasgow and District Champions 1977-1978 .
CONTACT THE CLUB Stewartry Rugby Club Greenlaw Castle Douglas DG7 2LH
www . stewartryrugby . co . uk
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