On Saturday we celebrated our annual Presidents Day at the club. This is a family day where everyone can come and enjoy the club and enjoy a celebration of rugby.
We started the day with our minis taking on Amber Valley and Melbourne rugby clubs. This was a great showcase of how far the mini and junior section has come since its inception in 2020. This saw some very good rugby played in great spirit with teams mixing to ensure everyone got plenty of rugby. The kids really had a great day and went off to enjoy their hotdogs and the inflatable slides!!
The 2XVs were joined by players from Nottingham Corsairs and Leesbrook to make a Barbarians team to take on Bingham Rugby Club. This was a great opportunity to get lots of people playing and was a competative game. The Barbarians narrowly loosing out.
Then came the main event, the 1XVs took on Wednesbury in the Papa Johns Cup Semi Final. After a string of great results up to this point, the lads were hoping to book their place in the Final, which is to be played at Darlington Mowden Park on the 7th May. The game started very evenly with each of the team swapping penalties to keen the score even. Wednesbury then went ahead after a break away try and were up at the break, after Rolls-Royce RFC couldn’t quite get into gear in the first half. Some words at half time saw a poster performance emerge from the lads. The power in the forwards matched with silky move in the backs with the lads coming out victorious 41 v 27. An amazing second half performance to book their place in the FINAL!!! Overall a deserved victory, congratulations go to Wednesbury who were tough opponents and played a great game It was great that they stuck around and spent time with us after the game to enjoy the day.
The end was rounded off by a speech from Club Chairman, Ian Baker and the Club President, Simon Carlisle to top of a great day of rugby celebration at the club. We awarded our Clubman of the Year award (the Paddy Young Trophy) to Marcus Hawes in recognition of his amazing contribution to the club this year (as with all other years too). Congratulations Marcus!
This event was the biggest so far with lots of families, players and travelling clubs enjoying all the RRRFC has to offer. The cafe was opened up in our new cabin and many parents provided delicious cakes to sell, not many left at the end of the day!!
