Clark Laidlaw

Clark Laidlaw joined the sports development team in August 07 as the rugby development officer.

Clark was previously employed for the last 3 seasons as club development officer for Jed-Forest RFC where he was in charge of the town’s rugby development from primary school programmes through to U18 player development. As well as working for Jed he was both the East U16’s and the Border U16’s coach for 2 seasons, and also worked as a lecturer for Borders College delivering their U15 strength and conditioning course.

Clark played professionally either full time or semi pro for 6 seasons, playing for Livorno (Italy), Border Reivers and the Scotland 7’s, where he represented his country in 25 IRB World Series tournaments including the 2005 7’s world cup and the 2006 commonwealth games.

He was voted Scotland 7’s player of the year for 2006. He also represented Scotland at U19’s, U21’s and students playing in both the U19’s and student world cups finishing 4th and 3rd respectively. Clark is still playing for Jed-Forest RFC in the Scottish 2nd division.

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  East Lothian Coaching course
 
East Lothian are to hold a joint refereeing and coaching foundation course on the 9/03/08 at Haddington RFC. The course is a full day course starting at 9:15am and running until 4:30 pm. The foundation award is aimed at coaches who work with primary school children, mini rugby and coaches with a limited knowledge of the game and laws. Anyone interested in taking part in the course then please get in touch with Clark Laidlaw claidlaw@eastlothian.gov.uk or complete the application form on this website.
Girls rugby in East Lothian makes a brave restart
 
Despite harsh weather conditions on Friday 18 January, East Lothian ran their first rugby open days for all secondary school girls in the region at Meadowmill Sports Centre. Twenty girls from local schools braved the element to take part in the session, which was open to all girls from S1 through to S6 and all 6 schools were invited to send girls along. The afternoon was organised and run by Clark Laidlaw the East Lothian rugby development officer and supported by the SWRU Rugby Manager Jo Wells and the National Development Officer Lindsey Booth. Club Development officers from the region also provided invaluable help on the day, leading coaching sessions and refereeing games. The girls worked through a rugby assault course, skills stations on tackle technique and contact and passing and hand catch, and finished with conditioned games. All girls, even those totally new to the sport were taking part in full contact by the end of the day. It was a cold and windy but successful day which left all involved excited about the future of girls rugby in East Lothian for coming seasons.
 
The next skill day has been set for Friday 15/02/08 at Meadowmill sports centre running from 14 00 to 16 00. If you would like to take part, please contact Clark at claidlaw@eastlothian.gov.uk.
 
East Lothian Primary 7 Tag Tournament
 
East Lothian held it’s annual Tag tournament on Friday the 23rd of November at Meadowmill with Schools competing from all over East Lothian. The standard of rugby on show was of a very high standard with all teams being very competitive in all games with some great individual play as well as the whole tournament being played in an excellent spirit.
 As has happened in previous years running alongside the rugby competition was a Fair Play Award, with all teams being awarded points for Teamwork, Good Conduct and Sportsmanship. This award was as competitive as the rugby competition but Windygoul won it with a very impressive total of 43 points out of a maximum of 45 so well done to them.
 The semi finals of the rugby were East Linton v Stoneyhill and Law v Windeygoul, with both games very close it was East Linton and Law primary schools that progressed to the final. In the best game of the day it was Law who finally ran out winners 5 tries to 4 in a very tight game that could have went either way and congratulations to both schools.
Well done to all schools who took part in a very successful day and congratulations to both Windygoul and to the overall winners Law Primary School.
 

Falcons October Camps

 
As part of the SRU pathway programme East Lothian Falcons are running October training camps for both their squads. This years U15’s squad will train on the Monday and Tuesday afternoons with a squad of around 40 players. This squad consists of all the players who played in the August programme as well as the boys who were in the initial training squads last year as well as a few boys who have been nominated by their schools or clubs who were not involved last season. The S2 development squad again consists of around 40 players and will train in the mornings, they have been nominated by their schools and clubs and it will be the first opportunity for the coaches to have a look at the players with a view to next seasons U15 programme.
 
The purpose of the two days is player development, and the make up of the sessions will be skill related training and conditioned games. It is important that all the players involved realise that this is a player development programme and that the skills training are just as important as the games in August.
 
East Lothian Falcons Update
East Lothian Falcons have just finished their August programme, which consisted of 2 weekly training sessions based at Medowmill Sports Centre on Wednesday and Friday evenings and 3 weekends of games on the Sundays.
This programme is part of the SRU player development programme and is used to help all players involved with their individual development as players. From this point of view this has been a successful time for all the players involved who worked very hard on improving over the course of the month. They are clearly better players now, than what they were 4 weeks ago.
 
Results: -
 
U16’s
East Lothian Falcons v Edinburgh Eagles (W)
East Lothian Falcons v Western Charges (W)
East Lothian Falcons v Western Warriors (L)
East Lothian Falcons v Edinburgh Eagles (L)
 
U15’s
East Lothian Falcons v Edinburgh Eagles (W)
East Lothian Falcons v Western Chargers (L)
East Lothian Falcons v Selkirkshire Blues (W)
East Lothian Falcons v Edinburgh Eagles (W)