Huge boost for development of rugby in Clonmel

A leading Clonmel sports club and one of the town’s top companies, both sharing the same values, have joined forces in a major boost for local youth development.

A sponsorship deal between Clonmel Rugby Club and Camida will help to develop a centre of excellence for underage players at the club’s Ard Gaoithe grounds.
Clonmel RFC president Ian Cooke has likened it to a partnership between two like-minded entities with a shared vision for the development of boys and girls.

Camida, based at New Quay, a raw material sourcing and distribution company supplying customers in the pharmaceutical, food and industrial sectors, has agreed an investment with the club to develop its youth academy.
Camida already has a large footprint in Clonmel supporting sporting and community groups, including the Tipperary ladies football team and the Junction Arts Festival.

“This is a very significant investment for us,” says Camida’s Paul Condon.
“It’s very important for us to be a local community stakeholder. It’s not just providing support into the locality, we are part of the locality, and this investment into youth development at Clonmel Rugby Club is further evidence of us having really strong roots in Clonmel,”said Paul Condon.

The Clonmel RFC Youth Academy will focus on the underage section of the club and will formalise the development pathways for boys and girls between the ages of seven and eighteen years.
These young players will have their skills and fitness levels monitored over their developing years and will have their playing standards certified. Clonmel RFC’s underage section is the club’s production line and formalising their development process will give the club a significant advantage.

Club president Ian Cooke said that rugby is a game built on values that they share with Camida, values such as respect, discipline, teamwork, inclusivity and community.
“What we are trying to achieve at underage and youth level is that we leave the people who come through our hands as better human beings. We want them to have somewhere they know they belong and have a place in their community,” Mr Cooke said.

He added that they had a blueprint for what they wanted to achieve at underage level for some time and the Camida investment now allowed that to proceed.
“We had a draft plan, with good boots on the ground, volunteers and members who got themselves skilled up in coaching. But it wasn’t activated to the level that we can now with the Camida support,” he remarked.

He described the deal, and what it can achieve, as one of the most important initiatives in the history of the club.
“The onus is on us to do it correctly now. It’s about our ability to influence young people and leave them in a better place in the club and in the community. We have done massive work at underage level and now it’s about putting more structure in place,” he added.
That’s echoed by Camida’s Paul Condon – “Youth development is very important and the values of the club at youth level are a mirror of Camida’s own values, such as respect, discipline and teamwork, and if we can help to nurture young players to develop that ethos and traits then it will stand to them in the future as they continue their playing career with Clonmel, and hopefully beyond, into Munster and Ireland.”

He described the last five to ten years as phenomenal for the club, rising from Munster junior rugby to the All Ireland League, and Camida looked forward to working with the club to build on that further.

The new partnership was launched on the day that Clonmel welcomed northern visitors Omagh Academicals to town in the AIL, and that step-up to senior level was a key component of the club’s development strategy.
Says Ian Cooke – “We do club strategic plans about every five years and we are very ambitious in that. Going senior was part of that plan and there is a community aspect to it as well. Looking south and east from Clonmel, there is no senior club in counties Waterford or Kilkenny, so we have a catchment area there. We want to give the opportunity to ambitious young players, who are capable of senior rugby and want to play, to stay in their own locality and not have to go to a city. It’s ambitious but we want to keep growing and building.”

The club is already trying to spread the game, with coaches going into CBS High School, with whom they have a great relationship, and they would like to introduce the game to other schools as well.
“We want to provide pathways for them so that they can witness excellence in our club,” says Mr Cooke, who thanked Camida for their generosity in allowing this youth programme expand even further.