MY CLUB: VIRGINIA RFC
Deer Park,
Virginia,
Co. Cavan
By DAIRE WALSH
THE past couple of weeks have been very special for Virginia Rugby Club in Cavan, who celebrated their 40th anniversary with a Dress Dinner Dance in the local Park Hotel at the beginning of March.
The club’s current Honorary Life President, Wilson Green, featured in the club’s maiden game on February 27,1977, and he has witnessed first-hand the way the Virginia has established their niche as the most southern-based club in the province of Ulster.
“We started off February 27, 1977. We challenged Cavan to a game. We beat them, and there was a wee bit of enthusiasm, and we played Mullingar, Longford, Athboy, I think Ardee and a few others, and we won them all. Word went around that we had to conform, and we couldn’t play because of insurance, so we had to register with the Ulster Branch. We’re the most southern-based club in Ulster,” Green remarked.
“Within about four years of that first game, the club had expanded with other new people wanting to play rugby. Some Gaelic players converted, and we won two Ulster Cups in 1982. We went on from that, we bought the field, and built the clubhouse.”
Green has been a committee member since the very first days of the club (who ply their trade in Division Three of the Ulster Championship), and in addition to six previous stints as club President, he has also been an Ulster branch representative for a number of years.
“I’ve been on the executive committee for 40 years. I travel once a month to Ravenhill, sit on the competitions committee in Ravenhill. I’ve been doing that journey for 40 years. There’s a disciplinary committee, there’s a management committee, all within that structure. If we have a problem, I’m the one that has to bring it.
Vibrant
“I’m Honorary Life President since 2015. I was (club) President six times, and I was secretary and treasurer, and all the jobs that you get when you put your hand up.”
With 350 registered juveniles, and 35 qualified coaches, Virginia has one of the most vibrant academies in the whole of Ireland. As part of their pre-season preparations, Ulster held an open training session at Virginia’s redeveloped club grounds in August of last year, and Green says that this was a huge boost for the club.
“It was terrific. We got a nice bit in the BBC, half-time between Ulster and Treviso. It gave Virginia a nice little sketch, and BBC had their cameras down, and recorded all that. It was a fantastic day.
“All in all, it was a good day, and a good fundraiser. That’s what we have to do, we have to keep pulling in the money somewhere or the other to cover the overhead. It costs us about €50,000-a-year to run the club, and we’re not in debt, except for the pitch,” he added.