Munster Rugby v Harlequins Match Programme

their local team. At a local level, we feel that
it’s very important to do everything we can to
make sure that right is provided for and make
it as accessible as possible. That’s the joy of
volunteerism, seeing smiles on kids’ faces is
what it’s all about.”
Reaching out to Clonakilty Friends of Asylum
Seekers is just one initiative of an overarching
plan for Clonakilty RFC to be a truly inclusive
club. A decision was made a number of years
ago to apply this mantra to both on and off
the pitch matters, as Director of Rugby Neville
Burton explains.
this success has been years in the making. With
the club’s mini section thriving, Canning hopes
that this initiative is a stepping stone to other
projects including reaching out to the LGBT and
Traveller communities in Clonakilty.
“We’re not going to stand here and take credit
for what we haven’t done yet. This is such a new
initiative and the first thing we have done is to
reach out to the Friends of Asylum Seekers. It
has been really, really positive. We have other
plans, we certainly plan on working with the
LGBT community here. Our plan is to run a
Pride Week here in the club which will involve
all young underage members and the adult
rugby team wearing the pride colour socks for
games that they’re playing, hopefully, if they go
ahead.
Neville Burton
“I suppose it has been a strategy that a number
of us have been working on for many years now
where we wanted to put inclusivity at the heart
of what we do,” Neville says.
“We also plan on working with the Traveller
community and we also really want to focus
on mental health because it’s such a big issue
now. We’re trying to create workshops that will
help the coaches improve the soft skills of the
kids intertwined in their training sessions. So,
improving their confidence, their empathy, their
trust, their leadership. So as well as making
young kids here better rugby players, we really
want to make them better all-round individuals.”
“That obviously extends to the pitch where
we’ve got equal playing time for all players. No A
or B teams all the way to U16, a fully functioning
girls section. But we also felt that inclusivity
needed to be something that extended beyond
the pitch and beyond rugby. We wanted to
make sure that as part of our strategy that
everybody in Clonakilty is welcome at the club
and can be part of our club. So we decided to
appoint two community engagement officers.
Courtney Canning and Sinead Burton were
a super fit because they are both passionate
about community engagement.”
The success of the club’s mini section was
recently recognised by winning the Munster
Rugby Club Mini Section of the Year award and
underage chairperson Helen O’Hea says that
Lulu and Mimi in action at Clonakilty RFC
As the sun makes a much welcome appearance
as the first of two minis training sessions begins
to wind down, the children make their way from
the pitches with muddy knees and beaming
smiles.
This is what it’s all about.
MUNSTER v HARLEQUINS | 13.12.20 | THOMOND PARK
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