he Earl and Countess of
Forfar have seen the work
of Angus rugby charity, The
Strathmore Rugby Club Community
Trust, on Their Royal Highnesses’ first
visit to the town since The Earl, Price
Edward, was granted the title in March.
As part of an afternoon of visits to
community projects in Forfar, the Royal
couple visited Inchmacoble Park, home
of Strathmore RFC, where the club’s
two-year-old community trust undertakes
a number of initiatives. The initiatives
have been designed to increase public
participation in sport to benefit their
health and wellbeing, and develop
young people into healthy, positive
members of the community through the
positive ethos and values of rugby.
The Earl and Countess were welcomed
by Stuart Gray, Chair of Strathmore
Rugby Club Community Trust; JoshGabriel-Clarke, Community Project
Coordinator; Gordon Cairns, Director
of Stracathro Estates - one of the trust
sponsors; and Bob Baldie, President of
Strathmore RFC, before seeing two of the
trust’s projects in action on the pitch.
The trust was founded in 2017 and is
based at Strathmore RFC. It works in
partnership with Strathmore RFC, Brechin
RFC, sportscotland, Scottish Rugby and
Scotland Rugby League.
Josh Gabriel-Clarke’s role is
supported by funding from the Forfar
Common Good Fund, sportscotland
and The Robertson Trust.
Their Royal Highnesses saw the Rugby
Academy in action, which teaches
secondary pupils life skills as well
as rugby, before being introduced
by Gordon to Rugby Academy
members taking part in various rugby
activities and conditioning games.Next, the Earl and Countess saw the
‘Strathmore Clan’ taking part in a Unified
Rugby session, run by Trust Community
Project Assistant, James Kiely.
Unified Rugby, pioneered by Trust Rugby
International (TRI), is used to provide
people with disabilities the opportunity
to build confidence and social skills by
engaging in a controlled game of contact
rugby against other teams, while also
accommodating their individual needs.
The ‘Strathmore Clan’, which has
been playing competitively since
March, features adult players with
disabilities, who play wearing red scrum
caps alongside able-bodied players
who support them on the field.
The Royal couple also learnt about
the Trust’s latest initiative in the
club gym; autism-friendly rugby for
primary children. The club gym was
the first to introduce this in Scotland.T
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