Rugby Club Issue 52 | Page 73

burnley being rewarded with success, winning the Community Club East Lancashire 2013 and the Burnley Community Club 2014. We have also been nominated for the RFU Presidents award 2014 at Twickenham and the Lancashire Community Club award 2014. On the playing front, the three Senior teams are currently mid-table in their respective leagues and are hoping for a positive finish to retain their status. The last couple of years have seen both the 2nd and 3rd XV's winning promotion and the 2nd XV winning the cup. We have also been building on the success of our Junior section with the introduction of approximately ten seventeen year olds into the first and second XV's this season. An example of how hard we are working at giving people the chance to enjoy rugby has been the number of people who have played for the three Senior teams, currently, 101 players have played rugby for Burnley during 2014/2015 whether every week or just when they have been available. The Junior section continues to grow steadily at the Club with more and more children getting involved. We are also seeing additional success at representative level with Lancashire and the North of England with both the boys and girls gaining representation. We are currently running teams at U7–U15 every week, and a U18 side which has just finished their own league season. We have also had five U13’s and three U14’s training with North Lancashire. As previously mentioned a real positive within Burnley rugby is the growing girls section, led by two experienced Club players who are level two qualified coaches, resulting in two U18’s girls and four U15’s girls representing Lancashire. We have also had one U15 who has moved on to the North of England Academy, which is great for the girls and the club. Every Sunday at the Club we have over 130 children having a go at Rugby; new children are always welcome. As you can see youth rugby is massive for our Community Rugby Club, it is key to our future sustainability and to developing our future senior players and leaders. Our goal is to help everyone develop, making the best use of their abilities, whether that ends up being with Burnley rugby or at a higher level. Past players have been able to move on to professional rugby with Sale Sharks or other Semi-Professional Clubs and we have one ex player who is coaching at National level. We are pleased for their success but also for the fact that they often want to come back to amateur rugby and "pay" to play for Burnley! Moving forward, the Club's goals are to play at the highest level possible within an amateur basis, enabling anyone who wants a game of rugby to get the opportunity to play. We will continue to develop youngsters throughout Burnley and East Lancashire supported by our qualified coaches and to show that rugby makes a positive contribution to the Community of Burnley and the surrounding areas especially in this World Cup year. Any new members feel free to contact us if you're ever in the Burnley Area. www.pitchero.com/clubs/burnleyrugbyclub - Twitter : @Burnleyrugby www.sportip.biz 73