The British & Irish Lions Legacy Tour comes to Dungannon RFC on Saturday the 27th of November.
The event will offer a day of entertainment, education and fundraising and champion the club’s first female Chair of Rugby, Cheryl Wilson, and her dedication to progressing female rugby in the community.
Local rugby stars Stephen Ferris, Tyrone Howe, and Gill Bourke will also attend, with Tyrone and Gill joining Cheryl as special guests on a live recording of podcast The Good, The Bad & The Rugby filmed at the club on the day with Mike Tindall, Alex Payne & James Haskell.
Dungannon RFC is one of four clubs - including Westbury RFC, Aberdare RFC and Bannockburn RFC - selected for the tour, an initiative dedicated to supporting grassroots rugby clubs in the UK and Ireland.
Dungannon was chosen for its commitment to growth and championing women’s rugby.
We spoke to the club's Chair of Rugby Cheryl Wilson about the tour, her history with the club, and how she manages this role while still featuring as a key player.
When did you first start playing rugby, and how did that lead to your current role today?
I loved and watched the game as a child from the sidelines when my Father played. I’ve been involved in Rugby from the late 90s where I started playing at Cooke, then for Ulster. I then moved to Armagh and started a team there before retiring. But, I got wind of Dungannon starting a senior women’s team and the rest is history.
Back in February you became the club's first female Chair of Rugby. How have you found it so far, and what does the job entail?
Chair of Rugby is the responsibility of rugby right across the club from minis, youth and seniors. We have very much raised the profile of the women’s team right across the community, but the women’s section isn’t my only priority. It’s been a real challenge to get all teams back playing and having the numbers there to complete fixtures. We are getting there, but some of our teams were almost 2 years without games. That’s hard for any sport to step back seamlessly.
To some of our youth players, that’s the foundation of learning their craft before they move to senior rugby. It’s the same for all clubs though, not just us. Volunteers have been lighter on the ground too, as some people have other commitments now and that has an impact on the ground. I still train most mornings and then Tuesdays and Thursdays with the team. It’s a juggling act but I'm just happy to have rugby to juggle again.
Tell us about the Lions Legacy Tour and how special this visit will be for the club.
We were selected as the Irish wing of the Lions Legacy Tour which The Good The Bad & The Rugby guys will be involved in. Our long history of producing Lions and our inclusiveness across the club is what gave us the advantage.
We have a full day of activities that the guys will be involved in from 9.30am, with kids activities until 12pm with the Minis. We'll then have a women’s match with Lisburn at 11.30am, and men's AIL game against Ballina at 2.30pm, with all of these games open to the public.
Mike Tindall, James Haskell, Alex Payne and Gill Bourke will be there all day with Stephen Ferris and Tyrone Howe joining them. The only event to be ticketed is the podcast itself and this will be followed by music from Ricky Lorimer and everyone is welcome to that also.
We are hugely excited to host the guys and the podcast and after months of careful planning it’s almost here. This is something we will be proud to look back on as we approach our 150th Anniversary celebrations.
