Aberaeron, a small seaside village in Ceredigion on the West Coast of Wales, famed for its colourful houses that adorn the harbour, has a Rugby Club steeped in history.
Back in the 70s Aberaeron RFC was the place to be in late August to see the greats of Welsh Rugby in attendance at the famous Aberaeron 7’s Weekend. A guest list that in its time featured JPR Williams, Rex Willis, and Brynmor Williams to name a few… all were regulars to the club in that golden era.
The junior section of the club struggled with numbers for a few years but thankfully post Covid there has been a surge in enthusiasm for the game and the teams representing the juniors are growing from strength to strength.
Today the club is alive and growing from strength to strength and from game to game.
In early Autumn 2023 one of the club’s U14s-rugby-mums spotted an online competition and alerted the club to it and thought nothing more of it.
Then in early November, Rebecca Doughty, junior secretary, received an email from Aramis to say they had won a competition.
Recently the kit arrived and the club, and the boys and girls in the juniors are delighted. The prize haul included rugby balls, tackle pads and a tackle bag.
“The new gear is the start of a new chapter for the Aberaeron juniors,” said Jac Compton, U14s junior coach.
He added: “As we move on from the old equipment and start to train with the gear we’ve been gifted from Aramis our training will move up to the next level too.
“New equipment will help our constantly improving teams to achieve the best possible results on the field. So for me, and the team this can only lead to greater things.”
“Their (the children’s) faces lit up when they got to see all the new equipment. All the Junior teams train long and hard year-round with incredible support from all the volunteer coaches, and support staff. This injection of new kit will fuel their enthusiasm on and off the pitch and help them grow as a team. We are all so grateful,” added one of the parents.
Roshni Mahajan, sales and marketing director at Aramis commented: “It’s so important to us that while we support the professional game, we continue to provide opportunity to grassroots rugby and enable all the chance to play this beautiful sport.
“Last year was such an exciting year for Aramis with our work alongside the Rugby World Cup and our international federations Italy, Samoa and Fiji.
“But, alongside that, we wanted to ensure we provide communities with the chance to access this world-leading training equipment."
“The new Aramis rugby training equipment’s going to give more of our junior players the opportunity to develop their tackling skills in a safe environment,” added Keith Jones, junior section chairman.
The Under 14s team played their first game in the Pembrokeshire Cup recently away in Fishguard and won 22-8 - a great start to the cup campaign.