Canada’s Women’s Rugby Team helps deliver festival with Lanark Highlanders as part of new ‘Get Into Rugby’ project

June 28, 2023 (Perth, Ontario) – As Canada’s Women’s Rugby Team begins their preparations for their upcoming Pacific Four Series matches in Ottawa against New Zealand and Australia, players have assembled in Perth, Ontario for their pre-tournament camp at Oakfield Rugby Park, home of the Lanark Highlanders Rugby Football Club.

Only having been on the ground for a few days, several Canadian players joined in a youth rugby festival this past Monday hosted by the Lanark Highlanders as part of Rugby Canada’s new ‘Get Into Rugby’ project.

“It was honestly surreal,” said Bailee Dobbie, Sessional Coach with Highlanders, sharing what is was like to have players from Canada’s women’s team at the festival. “I never got to have opportunities like this when I was growing up playing rugby. I was saying to another coach that having a national team around all these kids will be a defining moment in their lives. This will be a core memory for them and it’s awesome to see the impact it has on the kids.”

Canadian players spent more than an hour with the over 70 kids who participated in the event, helping the Lanark club coaches run drills and games and staying for an autograph session after the festival had concluded.

“Today was great,” said Connor Millenor, Community Rugby Intern and senior player with the Highlanders. “Especially for the young girls, it was awesome for them to have the opportunity to see where they can go with the sport. It was great all around to have these high-level players in our area and working with the kids.”

Rugby Canada’s new ‘Get Into Rugby’ program is designed to grow the sport of rugby in elementary and high schools across the country. The Lanark Highlanders have already begun to witness growth through this program, reaching approximately 1164 kids through visits to 27 different schools in the Lanark region in the month of June.

“The program has been a huge success,” explained Dobbie. “We were fully booked for the month of June and in schools every single day. Our club registrations went up, especially in our minis program. We had a great reception from teachers and administration. A lot of schools have already contacted us to pursue this and implement rugby into the curriculum for the future.”

“This year, we’ve grown a lot,” added Millenor. “Each year we are getting more and more people involved in our club, especially at the younger ages. We have over 70 minis registered this year, which is a great foundation to build on. The school stuff will only add onto that, like today we had 70 kids out here but 34 of them weren’t Highlanders players. Seeing this kind of growth at the grassroots level is great. It has been a lot of fun.”

In April, Rugby Canada, in collaboration with World Rugby, Rugby Ontario and Rugby New Brunswick, launched this new pilot project in two rugby hubs in Eastern Canada. Rugby Canada was one of eight applications selected to receive support from World Rugby out of more than 50 applications from around the world. The Lanark Highlanders were one of 10 clubs in Canada selected to be part of the project.

Rugby Canada’s Rugby Development Manager, Ryan Jones, stated, “The values of rugby and the community it builds sets the sport apart from any other. By working with local rugby clubs, such as the Lanark Highlanders RFC, we can help to instill these values to the next generation of players and promote the sport of rugby to a wider audience”

The Lanark Highlanders have only just begun what the club sees as a much bigger, long-term plan for rugby in the region.

Millenor explained: “Ideally, this is a five-year plan where we start working with more and more schools. We’ve only just hit the surface this year. We want to set up all the kids with kit, balls and equipment so they can just start playing rugby without a big cost associated with it.”

About The Lanark Highlanders Rugby Football Club

The Lanark Highlanders Rugby Football Club is a community-based club that has been
promoting and broadening the sport of rugby in the Lanark area for close to 20 years. They
provide opportunities for players of all ages and skill levels to cultivate their rugby skills in a safe
and supportive environment.