Breadalbane Finance Community Rugby Story Of The Month … Dunbar

Yesterday at 05:20 AM

WITH 10 wins and just one slip-up from 11 league games played so far this season, Dunbar currently sit a whopping 22 points clear at the top of Arnold Clark East Division 2 with just three matches left to play – but the Hallhill club's ambitions reach well beyond their men's 1st XV solidifying their place in the top-flight of the local/regional league structure next season.

"We want to get into the National Leagues," states Ross McKenzie, a long-serving Dunbar stalwart and management committee member. "We'll take it step by step, but we reckon that if our squad can stay together then that is a realistic target."

McKenzie is quick to explain that chasing further promotion  is not merely an end in itself, but a vital component to sustaining the rest of the club, by driving ambition, which in turn encourages participation both on and off the field, which in turn helps to push up standards across the board. Such a virtuous circle is surely the goal for all community clubs.

6N: Scotland v Ireland: Darcy Graham on delivering when it really matters

6N: Six takeaways from round one of the 2025 Six Nations

The Monday Bulletin (3rd February): AC/DC headed for Murrayfield and World Cup Sevens to be scrapped

Like many clubs across Scotland, Dunbar has experienced a steep decline in player numbers during the last three decades which has seen them go from regularly fielding four men's XVs to struggling at times to get one team out.

Whilst never quite reaching crisis point, there was a definite sense of drift, which has meant a strong mini section and a long-established schools rugby programme at Dunbar Grammar School has struggled to consistently feed into a flourishing senior club.

Now, a combination of factors – notably a sharp rise in the number of young families moving to some significant new housing developments in the attractive coastal town during the last decade – has created an opportunity that McKenzie for one is determined that the club will grasp with both hands (albeit this isn’t an overnight revolution).

"I remember a few years back, we had a Lions event at the club, and I went round the town putting out flyers to try to get a crowd along, and we had one guy … who was over 70 … decide he wanted to come to watch it, and nobody else," he recalls with a wry smile.

"We had hoped with all the new houses that all these people moving here from Edinburgh and elsewhere would bring an influx into the club, but a lot of people stuck with their own clubs, I think.

"So, we realised that it wouldn't be until their kids started coming through the school and into the senior club that we would really start to see the benefit of that population growth, and that's what's beginning to happen now.

"It's really over the last three or four years that we have seen this team develop together. Before that, we had good players, but it wouldn't need that many call-offs before we were struggling to field a team, and quite a lot of older players were having to carry on longer than they probably wanted to make sure we could keep getting a team out.

"Now, with the current squad sticking together, we know that this is our chance, and also the school is beginning to feed a steadier stream of players through.

"The average age of our 1st XV is 23 – and that's with one guy who is still playing at 39 pulling the number up! – so pretty much that whole group has played together from school, with the same coaches from first year taking them all the way through into senior level where they carried on as coaches for about three years.

"Initially,  the team was lightweight and they got bullied a bit, but now they are men, and they are coming good.”

"We got a new head coach two years ago – Damian Jones– who has assembled a strong coaching team around him,” McKenzie continues. “Damian used to be one of the junior coaches at Haddington, he came down here because he wanted to try his hand at senior level, and he's been superb. He's not one of those shouty coaches on the touchline or in the changing room, he just listens and recognises that players know what they have done when they make a mistake, so it is about moving on rather than getting angry. He doesn't leave any stone unturned and has helped create a really great environment."

But settling for what they have achieved so far is not an option at Dunbar when there are so many other ambitious clubs within a 45-minute radius.

"It wasn't that long ago that we had more Dunbar lads playing for other clubs than we had playing for Dunbar, whether that was Musselburgh, Preston Lodge, Boroughmuir, Stewart's Melville … and we also had lot of guys go away to university who never came back," McKenzie points out.

"So, we had to recognise that this was an issue with us as a club, and not with them as players who wanted to play at a level where they feel like it is worth their while. That's why we need promotion to keep players here, because if they can see that we are building towards something then that is attractive to them. At the end of the day, they play to enjoy themselves, but part of that is that they want to challenge themselves and experience some success.

"There might to be a bit of consolidating next season before moving on to the National Leagues, but that is definitely the goal," McKenzie reiterates. "We know it is going to be expensive, but if we don't have the aspiration to do that, then this generation of players are going to end up going somewhere else, and as a club we can't afford to not offer a standard of 1st XV rugby that the players we are bringing through want to play at.”

"Playing the same handful of teams in the East Leagues, year-in and year-out, wears thin. The guys want to experience different things. The current squad are certainly good enough to do that and they'd enjoy it rather than view the travel as a chore."

Dunbar’s  minis section currently boasts around 125 players, while the rugby club took over delivery of the 'School of Rugby' programme at the Grammar School about a decade ago with around 140 players regularly engaged there at the moment, and the under-16s team winning the National Schools Plate Final at Murrayfield last season. McKenzie is looking forward to seeing a few players from that team start filtering into the senior 1st XV next season over the next couple of season, while there are plans afoot to revive a 2nd XV – with a little help from some of the sprightlier members of the veterans (over-35s) team initially  – to accommodate these increased numbers and ensure that nobody is put off training during the week by a lacking of playing opportunities at the weekend.

Meanwhile, a really exciting and important development in the last two years has been the birth of Dunbar Dragons – girls' midi section – an initiative which underlines’s the club's commitment to being a resource for all the local community, and which will hopefully lead to the creation of a senior women's XV at some point in the not too distant future.

"We had three girls come through the minis and when they hit S1 there was nowhere for them to go, so offering them somewhere to play was the catalyst, and they brought in the other girls, so we have been slowly building from there," explains Neil MacPherson, a late convert to playing the game in his 40s, having originally got involved at Dunbar as a novice coach of his son’s minis team.

"And because of a lack of playing opportunities elsewhere we are now picking up players from Haddington, Tranent, Gifford and all those sorts of nearby clubs, who run really good minis sections but aren't currently offering rugby to girls beyond that. We’re up to 42 registered players now,

"They are all coming here because they want to play, and they are starting to knit-together as a community – the friendships they are building is really great to see. I'm the coach for the under-14s and we went from three girls up to 22 registered players, and it is the players who have done that.”

“It is the girls who are the glue of the team,”  adds MacPherson, who points to former Scotland Under-18s cap Faye Sutherland (now of Corstorphine Cougars and Edinburgh) and former Scotland Under-16 player Eve Cowe (now of Watsonians) as two female player who initially came through Dunbar minis before progressing their careers elsewhere.

Player profiles:

Katie McDougall is a member of the girls' under-16s said. She said:

"I started playing in primary four. My brothers were playing, and I used to come along to watch, then decided I wanted to get involved so I signed up to play for the minis and I carried on all the way through to the end of primary school.

"I stopped playing for a bit but then got back involved. We train on Monday and Wednesday nights, and there isn't a lot of us – five or six who are there every week – so we team up with the girls' team at Dalkeith and

"I've never thought about quitting. It is just what I do now. And I think it has helped my confidence. I used to be really quiet but I'm a lot louder now, and find it a lot easier to mix and make friends.

"I was recently selected to be part of the East Lothian and Borders regional programme. We train Tuesdays and Thursdays and play games against other regions on Sundays."

Molly Smith is a member of the under-14s squad. She said:

"I'm actually from Haddington so I played there up until about primary six then stopped for a bit, because they had a girls minis section but there wasn't many players at my age level.

"I came to Dunbar last year, halfway through S1 at school – joining at the same time as one of my friends from Haddington – and I've been here since then. I knew some of the Dunbar girls through East Lothian, which was a club I played for briefly after Haddington, so that made it easier to settle in."

• If you would like to nominate a club to feature in our 'Breadalbane Finance Community Rugby Story Of The Month' series then please contact contact@theoffsideline.com 
• Each successful entrant will receive a rugby-related reward to the value of £500 – kit, equipment, coaching or any other rugby related investment – as well as having an opportunity to tell their story through an in-depth feature on The Offside Line.

• Launched in 2013, Breadalbane Finance is a commercial finance broker, partnering with business owners who want to borrow money for any purpose. Breadalbane Finance goes to the lender market on the client's behalf to source the right lending product with the right deal that works for the client's goals.
• Built on long-standing trusted relationships – both with clients and their advisors – to date Breadalbane has helped 1,500 businesses secure over £500m of funding all over Scotland in a broad range of industries.
• For more information on how Breadalbane Finance can help your business, contact: Jamie Lindsay on 0131 281 5343 / jamie@breadalbanefinance.co.uk

Breadalbane Finance and TOL link up again for 'Community Rugby Story of the Month' series

The post Breadalbane Finance Community Rugby Story Of The Month … Dunbar appeared first on Scottish Rugby News from The Offside Line.