The mini section will welcome Primary School teams from around the city and county, while the youth section welcome teams from Ballymena, England and Scotland.
The action kicks off on Saturday when the City of Derry Under 19s welcome Ballymena to Judges Road for a Cup Fixture (2.30pm kick off). The Under 19s are back from a successful tour to Scotland last weekend where they defeated Ardrossan comprehensively. Coaches Alan McCay and Malcolm Burns will be pleased with their charges and will expect to progress to the semi final if their players bring some of their Scottish form to the table. The stars of the Scottish Tour were Ashley Doherty and Corey Logan who scored three tries apiece and Jordan Burns (captain and prop) who gave a Man of the Match performance. Logan is an outstanding player and back row on the Ulster Under 18 Squad and one for the future.
The club’s Under 14s welcome Loughborough Grammar School to Judges Road on Monday evening (4.30pm kick off). Loughborough are on a short weekend tour of Northern Ireland, playing in Belfast on Saturday and coming to Derry on Monday for a Civic Reception and a Tour of the City at lunch time. The Under 14s will be organised and coached by Paddy O’Hagan.
The Primary Schools in the city and county connect with the Rugby Club on Tuesday for two big events. The first event runs from 10.30am to 12.30pm and will be organised by Derry City Council under their Active Communities Programme in Primary Schools with Ryan Deegan and Kevin Gallagher the main drivers. The schools, which will have boys and girls participating, are Holy Family, Model, Drumahoe, Chapel Road, Groarty and St Eugenes with 250 pupils.
Tuesday afternoon has the Londonderry Primary School Blitz starting at 12.30pm and will be organised by Brian Gutherie from Eglinton Primary School. The Primary Schools participating are Liasnagelvin, Drumahoe, Eglinton, Limavady Central, Spires Integrated Magherafelt, Milburn Coleraine and Hezlett Castlerock.
Wednesday sees the Annual Mowbray Shield competition which is being run again by Foyle College, organised by David Barnett. The schools participating will have a number of teams involved and they are Foyle College, St. Columb’s College, Castlederg High School and Strabane Academy. The Tournament starts at 10.30am with the finals at 1.30pm.
Thursday will be a big day at Judges Road when girls rugby at secondary schoolslLevel takes centre stage for the first time. This follows on from City of Derry Rugby Club introducing rugby to girls in Thornhill, St. Mary's and Lisneal for the first time last year through their Development Officer Nathan Deeney. The Ulster Branch are now doing sterling work in these schools through their Female Rugby Officer, Glenda Mellon, who is organising this tournament. The teams participating are Lisneal, Oakgrove, Thornhill, St. Cecelia's, St. Mary's, Limavady High School and Limavady Grammar School, with the action starting at 10.30am
The week of under-age rugby comes to a close on Friday when once again Whitecraigs Rugby Club from Scotland are the visitors. City of Derry’s U13s and U15s will take on their Scottish counterparts at 6.30pm and bring the curtain down on a unique rugby week at Judges Road.
The week long rugby extravaganza is supported by Ulster Rugby with their North West Coordinator Shaun Bloomfield supplying Development Officers including City of Derry club captain David Funston to help with the organisation of proceedings.