Scottish Rugby Union appoints first two Custodians as new governance structure takes shape

The Scottish Rugby Union has appointed its first external custodians to sit on its oversight board within its newly formed governance structure.

Former 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games CEO David Grevemberg CBE and Cheryl Black, an experienced Customer Service Director and Non-Executive Director from the telecoms and digital sector, were selected following an external recruitment process.

David and Cheryl will join the Scottish Rugby Union Board in early 2023, and sit alongside its Chair, Professor Lorne Crerar CBE, current Scottish Rugby President Colin Rigby, former Scottish Rugby President Ian Barr and Vice-President Keith Wallace.

A further two custodian positions will be recruited from the Scottish rugby community in the new year through a recruitment campaign.

Chair of the Scottish Rugby Union Board, Professor Lorne Crerar, said: “The opportunity to take on the new role of Custodian within Scottish Rugby created an astonishing number of candidates of a very high standard and we were greatly assisted throughout the recruitment process by Carlyle, our search partner.

“I am therefore delighted Cheryl and David are joining us as they both have outstanding relevant backgrounds and are very committed to the ethos and opportunities for the growth and development of Scottish Rugby.

“Their respective experience across digital, customer service, ESG and sport, I believe, will be hugely beneficial to the role of the Scottish Rugby Union Board and future direction of Scottish Rugby itself. Their appointments are an important next step and I look forward to working with them.”

The Advanced Coaching programme is taking applications for coaches who have already completed the Aspiring Coaching Programme and are looking for the next step in their development.

The programme aims to equip coaches with practical coaching skills and tools to enhance their coaching abilities and the player experience. The course has been designed to cater for coaches delivering across the Adult Male, Adult Female, Youth Male and Youth Female areas of the game in order to effectively tailor the learning for each coaching environment.

Successful applicants will be allocated a Scottish Rugby Educator for the duration of the programme who will undertake practical and video observations, provide one-to-one support and develop coaches with open dialogue throughout the course.  

To find out more and apply, click on the link below.

Applications close on 3 January 2023.

Scottish Rugby has opened nominations for the annual domestic game awards, focusing on the on and off-field efforts of clubs and schools across Scotland over the course of the last year.

The 2023 Community Recognition Awards aim to celebrate and recognise the efforts of players, coaches, match officials and volunteers from the domestic game.

The format includes six award categories, which will be awarded in each of the five regions – Caledonia Midlands, Caledonia North, East, Glasgow North and Glasgow South.

The award categories are:

• Volunteer of the Season in Youth rugby sponsored by inspiresport, 
• Volunteer of the Season in Schools rugby sponsored by inspiresport 
• Volunteer of the Season in Adult rugby sponsored by Tennent’s Lager
• Young Person’s Award sponsored by inspiresport
• Community Club of the Season sponsored by Tennent’s Lager
• Community Referee of the Season

An additional award will be presented to the Glasgow South region, The Adam Gray Memorial Award. 

The applications for making a nomination, plus the terms and conditions can be found on our website, linked below.

Applications close at midnight on 31 January 2023.

Doddie Aid is a mass participation virtual exercise event that runs for 6 weeks from 1 January 2023 and raises funds for My Name'5 Doddie Foundation.

Sign up using the app, choose a district (each captained by a celebrity), claim a snood, and log your exercise miles, with the winning district being the one with the most miles when the event ends.

Make sure you create a league within the app to allow people friends, family and teammates to compete against one another. The club with the most league members wins a great prize: last year it was Ellon RFC receiving a coaching session from Gregor Townsend!

The last two years have seen over 30,000 participants cover 4 million miles and raise over £2 million for the Foundation.

Scottish Rugby's charity partner Hearts & Balls are raising funds through limited edition bottles of Loch Lomond whisky, created as celebration of the Grand Slam Dinner for the Scotland teams of '84 and '90.

A donation to the charity will be made by Loch Lomond for every bottle sold. 

The Hearts & Balls charity was conceived in 1999 when a player from Lismore Rugby Club in Edinburgh suffered a serious spinal injury that left him paralysed. Having run a highly successful appeal, Lismore decided to widen its support to cover other players impacted by serious injury or illness. 

Hearts & Balls came into being with the aim of ‘helping rugby help its own’.Since its beginnings in 1999, they have donated in the region of £700,000 to rugby players and their families. Through advice and advocacy, they also help them identify and apply for funds from other sources.

We would like to remind all clubs and schools that the Rugby Development department will shutdown for Christmas at 5pm on Friday 23 December 2023 and reopen at 9am on Wednesday 4 January 2023.

During this time, inboxes and telephone lines will not be monitored. If your club or school has an urgent enquiry, please email rugbydevelopmentadmin@sru.org.uk  and mark your correspondence as urgent. A member of the team will endeavour to respond as soon as possible.

Have a Merry Christmas and best wishes for the New Year!