Club Focus: Tramore RFC

Affiliated on the 29th November 2013, Tramore RFC, set in the seaside town of County Waterford, is the newest club in Munster.

With a population of over 10,000 and a town with a long tradition of sport enthusiasts, local Kieran Reddin took the initiative to look into the prospect of establishing a rugby club.

“I was coaching a bit of rugby in a local school and came across one very handy young fellow with lots of potential”.

“I told him it would be a good idea to take up rugby at club level but with a11km commute to the nearest club, he told me it wasn’t possible. That’s basically where I got the idea to form our own club here in Tramore.”

With the support of Brian Gribben (Club President) and mini coach Shane O’Rourke, a town meeting was called last June outlining the proposal which generated a lot of support.

“We knew there was a lot of interest out there, but exactly how much, we weren’t sure so we organized a public meeting”, said Gribben. There was a huge amount of support from the community and the general vibe was very positive.”

A club committee was formed and it was decided to initially focus on the mini age-grade with training scheduled every Sunday morning.

”We contacted the Holy Cross National School about using their grounds and the Principal, John Kindlon, was more than happy to let us use their facilities, added Reddin. We’ve been there ever since but we’re only looking after four teams from Under 6 to Under 12’s at the moment.”

“We have boys and girls training with us so on average we have 70 to 80 children every Sunday morning. We have nine mini accredited coaches and we’re sending a couple of more lads on the next mini coaching course to accommodate our growing numbers”, he added.

“We are also looking at up-skilling our coaches at foundation level in the near future. We want to give every young person, no matter what age grade, a chance to play rugby in Tramore”.

“The plan we have set is for the children to move up to youths rugby and to do it right. The last thing I want to say to our current batch of U12’s at the end of the season is we don’t have an U13’s section so that’s that – so continuing with the players we have into the next stage of youths rugby is very important.”

“The next step for me is to go into all the primary schools in the area to introduce rugby and promote Tramore Rugby Club. There’s also a huge amount of people approaching us about starting a women’s team, which we would love to do but unfortunately we don’t have the grounds to do it at the moment.”

Securing their own grounds is top of the list of priorities for Tramore and Gribben agrees that it is imperative for this to happen in order to to develop from mini level onwards.

“We are very grateful to the Holy Cross, and in a way having temporary accommodation for the moment maybe a godsend, in the sense that it gives us time to get over the little obstacles that you meet along the way when forming a new club”.

“Hopefully, they’ll all be sorted out by this time next year and at that point we’d love to have our own pitch and we can concentrate on developing older sides then.“

“We’ve done a lot of fund-raising and have had a lot of support from local business, in particular Dooly’s Fish & Chips and Quish’s Supervalu, who have helped us with sponsorship”, he added.

“We’ve also had great support from the two soccer clubs and GAA club in the town, who offered us the use of their all-weather pitches if we’re ever stuck, as well as some advice about starting off for which we are very grateful”.

With five weeks of training behind them, Reddin said the players now have the basic skill set and feels they are ready to participate in their first competitive outing.

“We’re hoping to have our first blitz day after St. Patrick’s week-end, We’re all really looking forward to it – it will be a great experience for everyone and the players will really learn from it.”

In terms of a long term planning, the club are confident that with all the support they have received to date, and thanks to the help of excellent volunteers and Community Rugby Officer John O’Neill, established home grounds for Tramore and continuous development is not too far off.

“Our objective would be for us to secure at least one field, ideally two, and the playing numbers to be able to compete up to at least U20s”, said Gribben.

“Hopefully we’ll eventually have a junior side competing in the Munster Junior League and progress our coaches and facilities to develop Tramore rugby even further.”

“There’s a lot of work ahead but we are all very positive. Our first big day out as a club will be on St. Patrick’s Day when our young players will be showcasing our new jerseys in the parade.”

“Everyone is very excited and we’re all really looking forward to the challenges ahead.”

Tramore RFC Committee

President: Brian Gribben
Chairman: Kieran Reddin
Treasurer: Aidan Healy
Hon. Secretary: Eddy Travers
Mini Contact: Shane O’Rourke
Child Welfare Officer: Elaine Butler
School Co-ordinator: Paul Fitzpatrick
PRO: Sandra Winkle
First Aider: Martin Hayes

Website: www.tramorerfc.com