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Delight at Ross Sutherland rugby touch turnout


By Andrew Henderson

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John Mann says Ross Sutherland Rugby Club’s summer touch tournament has brought a buzz back to Invergordon.

rugby ball over the grass
rugby ball over the grass

The fifth round of fixtures took place last night, with the Alness Gators and the Invergordon Stags leading the league table going in.

It is the first competitive rugby in any form the Stags have been able to offer since the pandemic began, and with a bigger uptake than expected, development officer Mann is delighted with how it has gone so far.

“We had 106 players in the first month, which is phenomenal,” he said.

“I wanted to get 100 by the end of the summer, so to do it in the first month was really impressive.

“It creates such a buzz. You’re there on a Thursday and you have three different games going on and coaches walking around watching.

“The games have all been pretty competitive. There has been the odd one that’s a blow-out, but most of them have been three points either way.

“It’s not really about the results though. Obviously everyone likes to win, but it’s more about social touch, and if you win that’s just a bit of bragging rights more than anything else.”

Around a quarter of the players are women, which bodes well for Ross Sutherland’s plans to start a senior women’s section this summer.

“We’re hopefully going to be able to announce that in the very near future,” Mann added.

“I would say the majority of the girls involved are older teenage girls, who have come through the youth set up already and are ready to take that next step up to senior rugby.

“There are also some girls who are giving it a go because they want to try something new, so there’s a good mix – it looks like it could be a natural progression to start a ladies’ team sooner rather than later.”

It could be the start of an exciting summer for Ross Sutherland, whose walking rugby and summer programmes for school children are also set to return.


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