Heineken Cup comes to witness Portarlington’s rugby explosion

You don’t get to be European Champions three times in four years by accident and for Leinster Rugby, the development of young players is the key.

One club at the forefront of the development of young players is Portarlington RFC and the club last week welcomed the Heineken Cup to the town.

Maurice Logue of Leinster Rugby, who works closely with the minis and youths coaches in Portarlington RFC, commented, “In the last two years Portarlington has grown as a club, with the ever-increasing numbers at Mini’s and a determined coaching structure this can only benefit the club in the future.”

The explosion of rugby in Portarlington hasn’t been an accident either. The club is the place to be for kids at the moment and it is a hugely welcoming environment for families. At their recent home blitz against Naas RFC, Portarlington Club President Padraig Maree, who himself played youths rugby before progressing to represent the senior team, remarked, “It’s great to see parents staying to watch the games and not just dropping kids off. The atmosphere around the club is just amazing to experience.”

And this is no surprise either with ‘tip rugby’ for those as young as five and teams of all ages playing at the one venue. An impressive spread of sandwiches, cakes and refreshments for parents and kids after the games allowed all from both teams to mix in this wonderfully friendly atmosphere.

The club also ran their first Summer Camp this August and as Mini Coordinator Michelle Maher noted, “ours was the biggest summer camp held in Leinster this year and the number of new kids out playing this season shows just how much they enjoyed it”.

The minis section, which looks after teams up to U-13s,, also ran a Tour of Wales last May which involved 58 kids and 44 adults spending three days in North Wales where they played matches against four different clubs and partook in activities such as a ‘treetop adventure’, go karting and the usual sing songs. The trip was an enormous success and another is planned for 2013.

Trips are also organised for kids and parents to Leinster matches and the craic on the buses helps to create memories and form friendships and will last for life.

Their facebook page is officially the most ‘liked’ minis facebook page in the world! To help keep it that way just ‘like’ the page at Port RFC mini rugby. You can contact them there or by calling Barry on 086 8206776 if you would like to find out more about minis rugby

Meanwhile at Youth’s Level at Portarlington RFC, Youths Coordinator Paidí Mahon is hugely proud of the success at this level in recent years and is excited about the future.

“At Youths level we field three teams in Portarlington RFC at U13, U15 and U17 levels while our U20 development squad work towards making the transition to senior rugby. We had great success last season with wins in the U15 Area League and the U16 Leinster Plate. Also we have four players involved at various different levels with the North Midlands Development Squads and U17 player James Brennan with the Leinster Elite Panel.

“Portarlington Club Community Rugby Officer Alex Mihajilovic is working away in the local schools and has Tag and Play Rugby programs up and running. We hold a monthly fundraising Teenage Disco and also organise trips to Leinster and Ireland games.”

New members are always welcome at any time and further details of training times and games etc can be found on the Portarlington Youths Rugby Facebook page or by contacting Paidi on 087-9488181.

The huge success and explosion of numbers in Minis Rugby has meant that the club has had to acquire a third pitch.

This wouldn’t have been possible without the amazing support of local pharmacy Adrian Dunne’s. Not only did they help to finance the new pitch but they also took bookings for the summer camp and sold tickets for the Club’s ‘Kick Back’ BBQ Weekend.

Minis Coordinator Michelle Maher said, “This is the first time that we have had a minis sponsor and the way that the pharmacy and their staff have supported us is a tremendous help and something that has made our progress possible”.

All players received new jerseys this season with a distinctive dragon theme and these proudly display the sponsor’s logo.