G’day all, Finally the sun has returned and the wind has blown away. The timing could not have been any better, yesterday we feared the snow and from my kitchen window I could see the dusting the black Isle got, but today nothing but blue skies and UV rays! My reason for such excitement over a bit of sun is, I had a primary 4-5 festival with over 100 kids. Happy to say they all got stuck into and they otherwise left with a smile on their face or looking absolutely knackered and praying for the lunch time bell. Well done to all involved.

Last Friday I made the joyful trip down the A96…. I was attending our Regional Development Officer meeting. Always good to catch up with the team and see what is going on in other areas. They main focus of the meeting was to discuss next seasons conference system… For those of you that have been following the club rugby structure, you will agree there has been some growing pains changing to the conference. We are going into year three and from what I can see it is starting to work, more games were played this season than last and less fixtures were missed/cancelled. However, what we need to be working towards is fielding teams at all age groups, Under 13s, 14s, 15s, 16s and 18s. This is a two-year plan for us as we are currently running three out of five. Which is a bloody good effort for a country team in the north, but when we can get all five teams on the paddock come Saturdays, we will be able to enter the high-level conferences and therefore get to play better footy! We also discussed some pretty interesting changes to the women’s and girls’ game, unfortunately I can’t divulge that information just yet but keep your ears to the ground for that, its going to be a real game changer.

Onto the weekend, Saturday is going to be another busy one, parents meeting in the morning. This could be an excellent chance to get to know some of our outstanding club volunteers which to be honest keep this place in working order. For fixtures, how about our fast flying under 18s are playing Montrose in the plate semi-final at 13:30. Which is a great warm up to the main event of our final first XV home game of the season against Deeside. Now, prior to our last home game against Shetland, I may have said to the fella’s it’s going to a fast-dry track and the traditional fast, expansive and flair full type of rugby we like to play will be on show. Well you know that didn’t happen, so I am praying to the rugby goods for some good weather between now and Saturday. After all that, you can come back down to the club on Sunday for our Under 15s playing Orkney in the shield semi-final. Going to be a tough game for the lads, especially since they are missing a few boys due to injuries. On the positive side, means another lad is getting a chance to do his thing on the pitch!

Last thing from me, I hope nobody is forgetting what’s going down on Sunday… Mother’s Day! Now, we all know rugby mums can be incredibly embarrassing on the side lines. I remember getting into a bit of a scuffle on the pitch many moons ago and even while stuck in the middle of interaction with an opponent or two… I could hear my own mother’s dulcet tones screeching “get off my boy”. I kept my head low and just looked the other way. We should remember though; some parts of the game mothers really do not want to see and the maternal instincts kick in. That’s never going to change!

So, lots of love to my mum and all the rugby mothers out there! Here’s hoping this gets me some brownie points.
Chur
John Mann, Community and Rugby Development Officer