Saltire Energy Rugby Schools Week: Amazing Ardrossan Accies at Largs Academy

Question: First of all, Alan, thanks for having us here. Can you tell us a bit about your role at Largs and how that fits in with the club?

Alan: My role is really kind of a supporting role. So (Largs PE teacher) Jamie Murchie kind of leads the programme himself. My role is kind of supporting him from the club perspective, tying in with him, tying in with the coaches as well, and just really pushing that transition and retention stuff, to try to get players from school – from primary school – into the School of Rugby, and then into the club itself. And just keep that pathway of players coming through.

Question: And how do you get that done on a practical basis? Do you receive support at all?

Alan: We do get funding from Scottish Rugby, it helps a lot, massively really. The G+P (Growth and Participation) funding is what we have. So last year we got the kind of intermediate level, which really goes towards coaches, transport for festivals and games, and kit.

Those three things are the big important spending parts of the club and the school. So, the club gets the money, the school benefits from the money, as you’re paying for coaches to come in and coach the kids.

And all of these coaches, they coach at the club as well. That’s just as important so that the kids can transition between the two and know the coaches there. When they come to the club, they have a friendly face there.

Transport costs this year are massively high, so having that money from G+P to be able to pay for the bus and not to put any pressure on the school to pay for themselves, is a massive helper for the school.

And then kit as well. So, all the PE staff are wearing Largs Academy kit, but it also has the rugby club branded on it too. So that way kids can always go up to the staff and ask them, ‘what’s that rugby club?’ and that starts the conversation and the gets kids into the sport, but then also getting them into the club too.

Question: And how have you found the conversation going about introducing rugby into schools like Largs Academy?

Alan: It’s the big thing for us is, obviously, Largs is quite a distance from the club, but the number of kids that will come from here to the club is improving, purely down to the fact that in primary schools, they’re getting rugby at P5, P6, P7 then they’re coming into the high school, and again rugby is an option there too.

Kids can now have three years of playing rugby at high school, and then they get coaching opportunities, qualifications, and then all that kind of benefits the school too. But then the club benefit from it as well. We get coaches out of it, we’ll get players out of it. We get more connections out of it, and you’re kind of helping each other out the whole way.

Question: What’s next for Ardrossan Accies on this journey?

Alan: The club’s got plans to try and expand the school rugby program to different schools. And right now, we’re using Largs to kind of base that model where we start from, and where we take on and like even now, there’s learnings from this year, where we went from single to double periods. That all adds up to more rugby exposure, and more coaching exposure.