Youth Field Sports - IRFU

Irish Rugby Football Union

• Irish Rugby has enjoyed its most successful season ever in its history - Ireland Grand Slam, Leinster Heineken Cup winners, Munster Magners League winners, Women's Team qualified for the World Cup, underage teams competing at the highest level.

• This success has been built on the foundations of Community, Club and Long term development of participation and this development is impossible without the support of the Irish Sports Council.

• Increasing participation is a stated priority for Irish Rugby over the next two years as part the four year IRFU Strategic Plan. The Irish Sports Council's support is vital in delivering the growth of sport and the game of rugby.

• The IRFU has designed and delivered specific programmes aimed at increasing participation in all areas. Several pilot participation programmes have been hugely successful.

• The Donegal Community Rugby Project is an example of growth and the central role that the Irish Sports Council plays in this.

• Donegal Community Rugby Project County: Donegal's geographical remoteness makes development of any sport a challenge. The project is directly funded by the Irish Sports Council grant through regional development officers in situ throughout the county. The two year programme so far has seen significant growth in terms of participation numbers. The focus of the third year of the project (2009/10) will shift from increasing participation/awareness of the game, to developing and training the volunteers who will create the legacy for the programme through a direct link a clubs to allow participants to continue the activity in a structured environment. The Donegal project was initiated through four clubs in the region working together to support the development of the game.

• The programme is only one example of similar success stories in other areas of the country where sport and rugby is continuing to spread to areas without the traditional background in the game e.g.
  
  - Leinster: Ballymun, Fingal, Swords and Dublin City Centre projects. The legacy of the Tallaght Project has been the establishment of Tallaght RFC, demonstrating the growth of rugby in the local community.
  
  - Connacht: Gaeltacht region of Connemara, through the Irish speaking Rugby Development Officers. The success has led to the creation of a youth level rugby club in Carraroe.
  
  - Munster: In cooperation with the Limerick Regeneration Project, Rugby Development Officers undertook a number of outreach programmes using rugby as a medium. Again these programmes link into the established clubs within the Limerick area.