Munster Rugby v Connacht Rugby Match Programme

“GAMECHANGER”
FOR SCARIFF RFC
that the generosity displayed by 30 members of
the club was the crucial final piece of the puzzle.
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.
“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. The finances had to be taken into it
but that was the idea of where it came from.”
“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
“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.”
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 ten 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.”
MUNSTER v CONNACHT | 05.03.21 | THOMOND PARK
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