Academy Rugby Football Club

After an extra-ordinary meeting in the summer of 2000 Academy Mini-Rugby Club was founded.
In its infancy the founding members were not sure whether the club would be a success.  Originally it was for children of a school age in Primary 4, 5, 6 and 7.  Recently the club has extended this to cater for children in Primary 1 up to Primary 7.

Nearly a decade later after its first season Academy Mini-Rugby meets every Saturday morning at Roughfort playing fields for an hour and a half and the club has grown in strength and stature over these 10 years.  It now caters for children from over 22 different local primary schools from every religious background.  The club also has over 30 qualified and fully vetted coaches to offer their rugby knowledge to one hundred and forty registered children.  The children play matches every three or four weeks against other local teams.

Another new addition to the mini-rugby section is the development of a maxi-rugby team, in effect ‘under 12’.  They train mid-week for a prestigious tournament in Rodez in Southern France in which they are the sole Northern Ireland representatives.