HJRFC’s AGM will be held at 7.00pm on Tuesday 7th May 2019 at Hillhead Sports Club
Nominations are requested for those wishing to be officiate in leading roles in the Committee. In particular nominations are being sought for the positions of President, Treasurer and Secretary. Nominations should be sent to the Club Secretary, Hunter Kirkpatrick by email to h.kirkpatrick@armour.co.uk no later than Tuesday 30th April.
HJRFC is proud to have several members of our women’s squad representing Scotland during a magnificent summer of sevens.
Our girls Ellie Burr, Eve Thomson and Zoe Toner have been working hard over the summer break as they train with the U18 Scotland 7s squad, coached by our own Graeme Blackhall.
Eve Thomson was selected to play in two Home Nations U18 tournaments in July – the first one was at Peffermill, Edinburgh on 7th/8th and second one in Birmingham on 21st/22nd.
After two days of tough competition and finishing 4th overall, Coach Graeme said “The girls have learnt a huge amount from their experiences this weekend and I can only praise them for their attitude and determination. Although the scoreboard didn’t always reflect their efforts, they should take massive confidence from how far they have come as a squad.”
The club stands behind the girls as they prepare for an internal exhibition match at BT Murrayfield this Sunday 12th August.
We are also proud to stand behind several members of our senior women’s team who have been named in the Scotland 7s training squad ahead of the second and final leg of the Rugby Europe Grand Prix Series in Kazan, Russia (Saturday 1st and Sunday 2nd September). Hannah Smith, Abi Evans, Mairi McDonald and Louise McMillan have been training hard during the summer months as they hope to secure a top-ten overall spot to guarantee a spot in next year’s Grand Prix Series.
All the best ladies! We are so proud of you and all of your accomplishments!
Pictures: Estelle Rodden
Hills Women are delighted to announce the appointment of Aird Jardine as Head Coach for Women’s Rugby for Season 2018/19. Aird joins us from Biggar RFC where he was the Women’s Head Coach, Under 18 Girls Coach, Under 16 Boys Coach and Coach at the Biggar Academy.
Aird will be responsible for providing and co-ordinating bi-weekly training sessions for the Women on Wednesdays and Thursday nights at 6:45 for 7pm, player profiling and match analysis. He will also be responsible for the provision of the Hills Junior Girl’s Academy.
Tonci Buzov, the Women’s Strength and Conditioning and Assistant Coach for Season 2017/18, will be retaining his role. Tonci, a capped Croatian International and Head Coach of the Croatian International Mens squad, will also have the responsibility of mentoring our Forwards pack. He will provide weekly strength and conditioning sessions on Monday nights throughout the playing season.
Hills Women are currently recruiting for a third coach. Applications are initially only being accepted from internal candidates – watch this space for more information!
Hills Women train Wednesday and Thursday nights at 6:45 for 7pm. All level of ability is welcome – including those who have never picked up a ball before. Please bring suitable footwear for the hard surface (not trainers) and your own water bottle.
This weekend sees a smorgasbord of rugby in the West End of Glasgow. Four matches will be played at Hughenden, over Saturday 7th April and Sunday 8th April.
The feature match is on Sunday 8th April, when our league winning Women’s 1XV will take on Stirling County in the semi final of the Sarah Beaney Cup. Prior to that, both the Men’s 1XV and 2XV are playing at home in important league matches, which will go a long way to determining final positions in the league table. Our youth section is also playing this weekend, with our U18 Girls team taking on Biggar in the Cup.
After being runner up three years in a row, the Hilljills finally got their hands back on the Sarah Beaney Cup in 2017. They won’t want to relinquish it easily, so expect a strong performance. Hills have already beaten Stirling County twice this season, including a 79-5 thumping at home on a cold January Friday night, which has proved a popular night for rugby in the West End.
The Men’s 1XV take on Haddington RFC in what is an important match for both teams. Hills are nine points behind Gordonians, who play their last game on Saturday away. A couple of five point wins in their last two games could see Hills leapfrog Gordonians into seventh place. Haddington are in a four-way relegation battle and will be desperate for a result. Pre-match lunch available, please contact John MacLean ASAP
The Men’s 2XV have two matches remaining in the 2017/18 season and are currently sitting third in their league. We require two wins from two to maintain this position as our local rivals Glasgow Academicals are snapping at our heels. Our opponents are Hamilton 3XV, who are second in the league, in what is expected to be a tight match. Hills narrowly lost 17-12 away in December at Hamilton.
The U18 girls take on Biggar, on Sunday, in the Semi Final of the U18 Girls Club Cup. The girls have had nothing short of a stellar cup run so far, which is great to see for Girls rugby in the West End. Winning 54-0 against Annan at home in the first round, then beating Cartha QP 0-55 away, followed by a 5-55 win against Lismore Girls on Friday 23rd March. Expect plenty of tries and a strong contest, as Biggar also won their last match 55-5.
With all four matches being played at home, there is plenty of rugby in the West End on offer this weekend. The schedule for Saturday and Sunday is as follows:
Saturday 7th April, Hillhead Jordanhill Men’s 1XV v Haddington 1XV, 1500 KO, 1XV pitch
Saturday 7th April, Hillhead Jordanhill Men’s 2XV v Hamilton 2XV, 1500 KO, Great Western Road pitch
Sunday 8th April, Hillhead Jordanhill Girls U18 v Biggar, 1200 KO, Great Western Road pitch
Sunday 8th April, Hillhead Jordanhill Women’s 1XV v Stirling County, 1400 KO, 1XV pitch
Local professional side, Glasgow Warriors, are also playing on Saturday 7th April, KO at 1615. The matched will be shown live in The Yill Hoose. As if you didn’t need more of an excuse to come out and support your local club!
As always, team cards will follow on later this week via social media. You can also keep up to date with latest developments on rugby in the West End on Twitter via @HJRFC and @hilljillsrugby.
Sunday saw our U18 Girls drawn to play Cartha in the first round of the Girls club cup! The girls were in confident mood following last weeks try fest v Annan! (55-0 at Hughenden for those who missed it)
Hills girls were on fire right from the start and took the game to their opposition straight from the kick off!
Strong running from the forwards and some dazzling back play saw the Hills blow Cartha away, scoring 8 tries in the process!
2 tries each for Zoë Toner, Anne Young and Erinn Foley and a try a piece for Melanie Grant and Jess Murphy with a number of fine conversions from Mel seen the girls run out 52-0 winners and progress through to the 1/4 finals of the cup!
Our forwards had stranglehold on possession with numerous strikes against the head in the scrum and stealing most of Cartha’s line-outs! Anne, Chiara and Aimee provided a strong set piece platform with Juliet and Eve in the engine room! This allowed us to launch No8 Erinn Foley at the Cartha defence time and again!
The backs are starting to string some moves together and with each match improve! The midfield of Brogan, Abbé and Mel has a nice balance to it and this in turn is providing good ball for the back 3 to explore and Zoë, Heather and Bethany/Jess lapped it up!
Report by Andrew Johnston
STIRLING COUNTY 36pts HILLHEAD/JORDANHILL 26pts
After some seventeen minutes of the Girls U18 final played on the main pitch at Murrayfield, Stirling had rattled on some nineteen points without any sign of reply and matters were beginning to look ominous for the “Hills” with a drubbing the likely outcome. Yet the “Hills” girls rallied in the second quarter of the game restricting their opponents to only one further score and coming close to a score themselves, being held up on the Stirling line on the final play of the first half.
Whatever motivational words were delivered to their charges by the coaches, Mesdames Konkel, Openshaw and Watson, are uncertain but they seemed to have been wired to a slow burning fuse, as Stirling scored immediately on resumption of the second half. Now Stirling, thirty one points ahead, appeared to be on “easy street” BUT then “Hills” burst into life. Urged on by captain Elis Martin and the strong running from deep by Erin Haldane, Allana McWiiliam opened the scoring, followed quickly by the elusive Helen Frater and powerful no. 8 Erin Foley, and then in the 65th minute by Helen Frater again, a constant thorn in the side of Stirling for the whole of the second half. Stand-off Melanie Grant converted three of these to leave the score tantalisingly at Stirling 31 Hillhead/Jordanhill 26 with only some five minutes to go.
A game which had looked to be a run away success for Stirling in the first half had turned totally and the result was now on a knife edge due to “Hills” second half resurgence. The concluding and clinching score when it came in the 68th minute resulted from a Stirling breakaway with more than a hint of the ball being knocked on as the attacker crossed the line. After consultation the try was awarded, but there was too little time left for the “Hills” girls to mount any kind of offensive and Stirling ran out winners in what was a fine advert for Girls development rugby.
This was some experience for all of the “Hills” squad to be involved in a National final played in the intimidating confines of BT Murrayfield. Each is to be congratulated on their commitment and performance. The squad will now be able to take confidence from this game forward into next season when ho
pefully they will all return for training for the new Season.
“Hills” Cup Final squad: Erin Haldane, Rachael Waddell, Meghan Davis, Helen Frater, Brogan Carberry, Melanie Grant, Niamh deans, Anne Young, Elis Martin ( C ), Aimee Johnston, Tallulah Armstrong, Eve Thomson, Allana McWilliam, Lucy Mills, Erinn Foley.
Replacements Sara Akinrinbola, Christy Smith, Amy Saunders, Zoe Toner, Elissa Burr, Eilidh Kelly.
Biggar RFC welcomed both a full Hillhead u18XV squad and the early summer sunshine to Hartree Mill.
As expected the opening salvos were fired in uncompromising fashion and after sustained pressure in the Hills 22 area Biggar were first to trouble the scorers with a converted try. An immediate response was required by Jills which came moments later with fine converted try of their own.
The all important battle of the gain line once again proved vital and another period of sustained pressure saw Biggar dominate that area of the game and capitalise on a stretched Jills defence to score twice in succession with two unconverted tries! Hills again responded with a converted try of there own making it 17-12 at the break to the host side.
After the break a series of probing attacking movements nearly saw the home side extend their lead but they were denied by some very good Jills defence but in the end it was the hosts who scored first to extend there lead with a fine converted try to take the scores to 24-12. The home side extended their lead again moments later with a another try to take the sore to 29-12 that would be the final time Biggar put points on the board.
After a regroup Jills upped the ante and scored another 3 converted tries to end the match as 33-29 victors, bagging a place in the final at Murrayfield on April 29th against Stirling county.
Many thanks to the referee on the day without which the encounter would not have been possible and to the Management and Staff at Biggar RFC for their fantastic hospitality and wonderful facilities.
Hills Player of the Match with a 4 try stunner – Helen Frater
Try scorers –
Helen Frater 4
Ellie Burr – 1
Converted Mel Grant – 4
Report by Ritchie Bruce
Hills ladies and junior girls (U18s and U15s) were all in action yesterday, Sunday 5th March.
Hills ladies played Murrayfield Wanderers at home to record a 63-10 win in the semi final of the Premier Development Cup. Player of the match was Kirsty Reid with two tries whilst other Hills scorers were Hannah Smith (4), Mairi McDonald (3), Aimee Watson (1), Hannah Telling (1) and Ally Cook with the conversions.
Hills play the winner of Ayr and Stewartry in the Final which is scheduled for the 19th March.
The game was pictured by Fiona, you will find more of her very good shots here.
Hills squad: Siobhan McMillan, Stella Kyalikunda, Fiona Reardon, Kirsty Openshaw, Jenny Johnston, Kirsty McConnell, Kirsty Reid, Hannah Telling, Sarah Smith, Ally Cook, Lizzie Willis, Hannah Smith, Kirstin Daly, Aimee Watson, Mairi McDonald, Debbie Falconer, Georgie Keys, AnnMarie Franz, Caitlyn Haldane.
Meanwhile at Bridgehaugh, Hills under 18s lost to Stirling County 40-12 in the West League whilst the under 15s played a friendly. Judging by the smiles and the mud, a good day of rugby was had by all!
Featured picture by Lesley Robertson
Above Pictures by Fiona and Jade
Report by Heather
