Our Moment of the Month award for March goes to the Blue Roses, the girls’ team of North Shields RFC. The team has made significant progress since the start of the season. They launched their U14 team with only three players, but now they have a consistent squad of 19.

The team advertised for players back in February 2023, and their first player was a huge Newcastle Falcons fan who always wanted to play rugby. Two more girls joined the team, and they remained a trio until the end of the season.

At the beginning of the 23/24 season, it seemed like the team would again struggle to gather enough players. However, coach Dave Hardy organised an open morning for anyone interested in joining, which attracted a new player, and things picked up from there.

Dave Hardy, U14 Girls coach said: “The girls started bringing their friends and they all bonded as a team incredibly quickly. So, we started the 23/24 season with 6 girls. By November we had 9 and played our first-ever match, against Northern.

“I then set the girls a challenge and promised to dye my hair blue if they could bring enough friends to have a full team of 15 players by the end of this season! We hit that target in the last week of February, and I made sure my hair was blue for the next match!”

Currently, the U14 girls’ team has an impressive 19 players, and the club is looking forward to fielding girls’ teams at U14, U16 and potentially U12 in the next season. The success in building the team this year has been remarkable, and the hope is that more girls will be attracted to the club to join them.

North Shields RFC is an active member of our Club Connections programme, powered by Fusion for Business (FFB). FFB helps support sports clubs on their journey to achieve Net Zero through various programmes. Their solutions comprise of a series of debt-free, risk-free, cost, carbon, and energy-saving measures.

For more information about Fusion for Business, please contact maisie.cole@fusionforbusiness.co.uk.

For more information about our Club Connections programme, please contact falconscommunity@newcastle-falcons.co.uk.