A Summer of Great Numbers..and Even Better Fun!

September 13, 2019 6:21 pm Marcus Ó Buachalla

The Leinster Rugby Summer Programmes, proudly sponsored by Bank of Ireland, have been a huge hit again this year on rugby pitches throughout the province.

The Summer of 2019 also saw the addition of the first ever Leinster Rugby Inclusion Camps, which ran in five camp venues, over three days. The Inclusion Camps were aimed at boys and girls up to the age of 15 with intellectual disabilities and were a huge success across all five locations.

This summer saw record breaking numbers – over 4,600 attendees and a 8% increase in participation levels on last year – with most of the Leinster Rugby camps selling out in record time.

In total, Leinster Rugby hosted four different camps throughout the summer, all of which were supported brilliantly by Bank of Ireland;

Summer Camps
Inclusion Camps
School of Excellence
Language Camps

The camps were managed by Ken Moore, Stephen Maher and Billy Phelan and they had a massive team of Leinster Rugby coaches helping them to cater for the 4,600 attendees.

Some of the headline stats from those camps include:

28 Summer Camps were held for children aged six to twelve
3,000 children attended the 28 Summer Camps
100 children attended the first ever Inclusion Camps
Over 130 international students attended our three Language Camps this summer
Players from France, Spain, Italy, Andorra, Romania, Belgium and Switzerland to name but a few attended the Language Camps
All of our camps are open to boys and girls
A record number of girls participated this summer with 340 girls taking part, a rise of 20% on 2018
Over 1,100 attended our four week-long residential and non-residential School of Excellence Camps

And of course all of the 4,600 camp attendees met Leinster Rugby players from the Academy and from the Senior team, and also coaches from the Senior set up that contributed to the Bank of Ireland School of Excellence programme.

There was also a few guest appearances from the Guinness PRO14 trophy!

Speaking after the publication of the Summer Programme 2019 Report, written by Lisa Doyle, Declan Fassbender, the Community Rugby Manager for Leinster Rugby said, “it has been really impressive to see how the summer group has come together to plan, develop and support the programmes.

“Huge congratulations and thanks go to the Bank of Ireland for their continued support on the summer programmes, to all Programme Managers, Ken Moore (Summer Camps) Stephen Maher (School of Excellence) and Billy Phelan (Language Camps) for their exacting standards and quality in delivering their respective programmes.

“The coaches working within these programmes performed brilliantly guided by their Managers and are great ambassadors for Leinster Rugby.”

“I was lucky enough to pop out to some venues and to see the young players enjoying their time and the professional way they were supported and cared for. The smiles, the fun and indeed the sun will populate most of the memories…there were some great questions for the professional lads too!”

All in all, a brilliant Summer of Leinster Rugby fun across the 12 counties! Here’s to creating more memories in 2020!

Summer of 2019 – The Numbers

The Bank of Ireland Leinster Rugby Inclusion Camps

Five camps in Terenure RFC, Greystones RFC, Navan RFC, Tullamore RFC and Newbridge RFC
The Newbridge RFC camp sold out with 30 participants on the three day camp
In total 100 boys and girls participated in the first ever Inclusion Camps
25 coaches across the five camps
10 care assistants across the camps
1:4 the coach to player ratio across the camps

The Bank of Ireland Leinster Rugby Summer Camps