Rugby: Internationalist visits Broxburn Academy

Jul 2 2009 by Alistair Watson, West Lothian Courier

SCOTTISH rugby internationalist David Young visited Broxburn Academy in a bid to encourage more youngsters to take up the game.

The Edinburgh Rugby summer signing was there to help the emerging school sides with their own recruitment ahead of the school’s first venture into the Brewin Dolphin Scottish Schools’ Cup.

Young was joined by fellow Edinburgh Rugby and Scotland A internationalist Greig Laidlaw, at the school’s season finale.

This took the form of a ‘come and try’ session to showcase the progress made by the school and to encourage others to sign up.

David Young said: “I’m really excited about joining Edinburgh Rugby and helping the team to grow both on and off the pitch.

“We understand the importance of putting something back into the game at grassroots level and community visits like these are very important.”

Since joining the school around two years ago, English teacher Jamie Crawford worked to introduce and establish rugby within the school and revealed that he has been using other Edinburgh Rugby connections to help him along.

He said: “We have been lucky this year to have had the help of Mark Cairns – brother of Scotland and Edinburgh Rugby centre Ben Cairns – who has developed rugby in the junior school.

“We’re definitely entering the under-15s in next season’s Brewin Dolphin Scottish Schools’ Cup but we need more players to enter the under-18 tournament.

“I’m focussed on building a structure in the school that will give pupils at the school the chance to begin playing rugby in S1 and then train, play and develop their skills right through to senior level.”

Cairns added: “We went from about two people turning up at sessions at the start of the year before I started to drive rugby through my teaching, and most recently had over forty at tournament at the school.

“We’ve also been taking part in a couple of local tournaments organised by Livingston development officer, Craig Bolan, and have been really successful in those so I think we’re at a stage where we can compete at a higher level in the under-15 Brewin Dolphin Scottish Schools’ Cup with a squad of about 22.

“Hopefully, playing in a Scottish-wide arena against tougher opposition will encourage their skills to develop.”