Cumbernauld Rugby Club makes urgent appeal for new players

The Badgers had to pull out of Saturday’s BT West Division 2 game at Cumnock - the game has been rescheduled for March 4 - because they didn’t have enough players available.

And with the club having difficulty putting out a first XV for their weekly matches, they need more players to boost the squad.

Club president Jim Cochrane said: “Last Saturday we had only 13 players who had made themselves available for selection on Friday night.

“League rules stipulate that all teams must start the match with 15 players and given that we only had 13 available players by 6pm on Friday the decision was reluctantly taken to inform League officials that we would be unable to fulfil the fixture against Cumnock, away, the following day.

“A significant number of players were genuinely unavailable because of injury, illness or work commitments.

“But it is sad that we were forced to call-off, even allowing for the difficulty in putting together a team so soon after the Christmas and New Year break.

“However this is becoming more of an issue for clubs like ourselves.

“McLaren High School have already withdrawn from League 2 because of the same problem.”

Cumbernauld are bottom of the league and Jim indicated their stretched squad was a contributory factor.

He said: “While we continued to have a full complement of 15 players for Saturday fixtures, any injuries sustained during the game meant we were unable, on a number of occasions, to make replacements for injury meaning we ran out of steam and inevitably lost the match.

“We really need more players so if there are any “retired” players out there who would like to get back into the game or anyone else who would like to play rugby, please get in touch. Our club telephone number is 07732 769280. Our email address is [email protected].”

“Our next league match is on Saturday when we travel to face our local rivals, Lenzie Rugby Club, for what is sure to be the usual feisty derby.

“I think we have been victims of circumstance because of the Western League’s insistence that the league fixtures commence on the first Saturday of the new year, which is a bit ‘optimistic’.

“Like so many clubs of our standing the recruitment and retention of players is difficult, much of which is to do with the number of boys playing rugby and coming through the senior ranks. This is a serious problem for Scottish Rugby and the Scottish Government’s lifestyle and fitness agenda.

“Normally we would have 20 players available for a Saturday fixture with Second XV fixtures from time to time.”