Our competition winners were given a once in a lifetime opportunity to train with Scottish internationalist Hamish Watson at BT Murrayfield in Edinburgh last week.

The competition was launched by Scottish Building Society, Edinburgh Rugby’s front of shirt sponsor, to provide unforgettable experiences to young community teams in the regions we serve around the country.

Clubs were asked to submit their reason why they should win the training session at the famous stadium and with over 130 entries - three lucky clubs were selected for the trip to the national stadium.

Junior sides from Ellon RFC, Marr Rugby Club (girls section) and Wolves Rugby visited the capital for a memorable day on the pitch with Scotland and Edinburgh Flanker, Hamish Watson along with members of the Edinburgh Rugby squad and the club’s community coaches 

The teams were given a tour of BT Murrayfield before taking to the pitch to be led through their paces by the rugby pro who offered insider tips on training, gameplay and technique. The teams were also given a goodie bag of treats including balls and signed tops.

Speaking after the event Paul Denton, Scottish Building Society CEO, said:

“As a building society, community is vitally important to us and through our partnership with Edinburgh Rugby, we have been able to give groups a once in a lifetime experience. One of the things I am most proud of this partnership is being able to give people around Scotland some incredible experiences and give back to those individuals and organisations that did so much to help others over the last two years.

Ellon Rugby coach Andrew Booth said:

“We were so thrilled to be selected for this experience and the team could not have been more excited coming down on the bus.

“You don’t normally get access like this to elite players and to see the girls and boys being coached by one of the country’s top players is such an inspiration for them to stick with rugby and motivate them to keep enjoying the sport.

“Lockdown was difficult for many of the players not being able to see each other and get outside and play.

“We decided we wanted to keep up the community spirit though and ran online sessions to make sure everyone felt involved and could find some way to keep active.

“A lot of our players haven’t played a lot of rugby before so for them to get the chance to play at Murrayfield is very special.”

Hamish Watson commented:

“It was a great day out and there’s no doubt there’s some excellent potential making its way through the ranks of grassroots Scottish rugby. It was great to see everyone enjoy the day and hopefully, this won’t be the last time we see some of them play at BT Murrayfield!”