A Roundup of the Latest Rugby News from Donegal

Countdown to the Donegal Rugby Championships Begins
Representatives from the Rugby clubs in Donegal have shown their support for the upcoming inaugural Donegal Rugby Championships by attending a workshop last week to discuss the organisation of the event.

The competition will involve all six clubs in the county playing for silverware over a full day of rugby. It is hoped that the competition will become an annual one, and while Donegal Town will host this year's championship, the aim is to move it around the rugby clubs.

The championship is scheduled for 17th April and will begin with a Mini Rugby festival in the morning for over 300 players aged 6 to 11 year olds. Under the new IRFU and ISC guidelines, the emphasis is purely participation based, therefore there will be no silverware for this part of the day.

The silverware will be contested later in the day between the boys and girls from the clubs' youth teams and then the show piece will be the senior men's competition which will conclude a day of rugby involving over 600 players. This will be the largest rugby competition ever run in County Donegal and it is sure to be a great day for all involved. The build up to the competition will be reported through the local media and Donegal Project website so that everybody is given to the chance to get involved in this end of season event.

New IRFU Qualified Coaches attracted to the game in Donegal
Over 40 coaches from Donegal Town, Letterkenny, Tir Chonaill, Ballyshannon and Inishowen Rugbby clubs took part in the recent IRFU Foundation and Mini Rugby courses at Aura Leisure Centre in Letterkenny. The courses were delivered by IRFU Ulster Branch staff, both in Donegal and from the rest of the province. The Mini course also involved 10 new coaches from the soon- to- be affiliated club, Finn Valley RFC in Stranorlar. The club has successfully attracted several parents from the new mini section to get involved in the coaching and development of the club.

Ulster Branch PRO workshop in Donegal
Club Media Officers in Donegal recently attended a workshop run by Máire Cahill, IRFU Ulster Branch Marketing and Communications Executive. The workshop was aimed at giving the clubs more information and support in increasing their profile in the media, and indeed in the County, Province and Country.

This workshop was the first of several steps being taken by the Donegal Rugby Project to increase the coverage of the work being undertaken by the clubs and schools in the community.

The next step of the programme is for the clubs to develop their own processes for reporting the activity from their clubs to the local papers on a weekly basis. Several of the County papers have agreed to increase the amount of coverage being given to the game so that more people in the community can see the substantial growth of the game in Donegal.

Click here for some photos of recent events in Donegal