“Gamechanger” Indoor Pitch At Scariff RFC Almost Complete

It has taken years of research, hard work, fundraising and ambition but Scariff RFC are almost at the finishing line with the approaching completion of their new indoor pitch.

The indoor facility will consist of a 40x20m state-of-the-art 4G pitch and president Michael Madden describes it as a “gamechanger” for the East Clare club.

Madden says that the idea came to fruition after observing how clubs in New Zealand deal with a similar climate to what we experience in Ireland.

“A lot of the committee are involved in the underage of the club and you’d be watching videos,” Madden tells Munster Rugby.

“We were watching a lot of New Zealand videos of different things they are doing down there. They seem to be doing them all inside, in indoor sheds and things like that. Their weather is something similar to our own so that got into our heads. It all came from that. The finances had to be taken into it but that was the idea of where it came from.”

Madden envisages various advantages and benefits which the new facility will provide once completed and when rugby makes a normal return post-pandemic.

In the winter months, the availability of an indoor facility will hopefully encourage those who may be put off by the weather to continue playing while it will also act as a revenue stream as Madden confirms that Scariff RFC have already received expressions of interest from other sporting organisations in the county to rent out the pitch.

“Financially, it’s hopefully going to be a great addition to the club. As well as that, the amount of training sessions that we used to have called off because we would do a lot of our training sessions on the Friday night because we’d be playing on the Sunday. This will be a gamechanger.

“We can train now; teams can train on different nights during the week. We’ll be able to do full contact on it and it will finally add to the picture that we will have every facility possible in the club. They will either want to play or they don’t want to play but they will be left with no excuse not to.”

The club have undertaken numerous fundraising initiatives over the years to help finance the development but Madden explains that the generosity displayed by 30 members of the club was the crucial final piece of the puzzle.

“What’s really finished (the project) is that we’ve managed to get 30 guys in the club to give €1,000 for 10-year membership and without that, we wouldn’t have been able to finish it. Over the last three or four years, everything that we’ve been raising…we’ve done tons. We did a boxing night, we did poker classics, we’ve done Lottos. The committee has worked its socks off to get this thing over the line.

“Hopefully, what we’ve done for the club will stand for the next 50 years. Much like before, we were the first ones in Munster to run a local lotto. That was another committee in the past and off that, we bought the field, they built the first clubhouse. They owned everything which kept the club afloat because once you own your own thing, it’s a lot easier to keep things going.”

The club has experienced huge growth in its underage numbers in recent years. A rebranding of the club’s underage teams to the ‘East Clare Titans’ was undertaken to put the message out there that they welcome all young people in the larger vicinity rather than those solely connected to Scariff.

“So, by calling it East Clare Titans, it’s an East Clare team for rugby. We have people from all different areas now. We started off with maybe four or five kids nearly eight or nine years ago and now we have an U13s, an U14s…We’ve good numbers at every level. We could always do with five or 10 more at each level but we have numbers that we’ve never seen before in the club at every level. Hopefully, that’s enough to drive it on.”

Madden says that the facility is almost near completion and hopes for it to be finished by the middle of March. Although it will likely be some time before the club’s players get an opportunity to experience the fruits of all the hard work that has been done over the last few years, Madden believes it is a huge achievement.

“It’s amazing. I’ve been down there just to walk around and it’s going to be a huge addition to East Clare. There’s nothing of its like in Clare anyway so we’ll definitely be the first. For a small club like ours, it’s a huge achievement once we get it over the line.”