In a major win for grassroots sport, Enniskillen Rugby Club (ERC) has been celebrating a significant funding boost to help its women’s rugby programme continue to thrive.
The club has been one of the stand-out success stories for local women’s sport in recent times, with five of the 15 starting players for Ulster in last week’s Interprovincial Championship tie coming from Enniskillen, while local woman Claire Boles is current representing Ireland at the Rugby World Cup.
Last week ERC announced it had been awarded £100,000 from the National Lottery to help it grow and develop its women’s programme even further.
“We received lottery funding back in 2002/03, we opened this new pitch which is a sand based pitch and new match floodlights which we didn’t have before. This would not have happened without National Lottery funding,” Brian Foster, junior vice president of Enniskillen Rugby Club said.
“We have a club of over 800 members, 50 percent of the membership at the moment is female, that is incredible. We have 180 plus female playing members at all age groups.”
Enniskillen Rugby Club has a proud track record of developing elite players, including Irish internationals Kathryn Dane and Claire Boles.The club also has seven players in the current Ulster women’s squad, with India Daley leading as team captain.
Growing
“We now struggle because the numbers have bloomed up so much for facilities, changing rooms is our biggest problem with numbers we have outgrown,” said James Moore Senior Women’s Convenor at Enniskillen Rugby Club.
The £100,000 National Lottery funding has already begun to make a tangible impact at Enniskillen Rugby Club, with key improvements made to both infrastructure and sustainability. Young players at the club are already feeling the benefits.
Under-18 player Orlaith Maguire shared her experience, “I have been in the club for six or seven years now playing and moved up through the minis and now I am in under 18 and next year I will be heading to senior.
“The women’s panel would be very supported, we are very successful and there is a lot of development provided for us I would say more so than most clubs in our branches and there is quite a good facility for our development and we would be very encouraged but I feel it could be developed so much more around Ulster and all the other provinces.”
Jodie Thompson added, “I feel like it was definitely needed for this club, the money would be greatly helpful for the club and I think it would influence other people to join as they see we are such a well developed club and we are getting this money from the National Lottery I feel like it would encourage people to come.”