Jonathan Landi on how the borough’s top rugby club is helping to grow the game locally

Enfield Ignatians taking on London Scottish Lions (credit Rob Bruce)

Enfield Ignatians continue to fly the flag for community rugby and, in addition to fielding two senior teams and being home to burgeoning youth and girls’ rugby sections, we also pride ourselves on being as a source of talent further up the game.

Mark Donaldson, who played for the club in the 1970s, went on to be capped for the All Blacks, while the Sanders brothers, Phil and Denis, both had respective spells at Wasps and Saracens. Ben Mills, the former Ignatians first-team hooker, also successfully represented Cambridge University in their 15-10 win over deadly rivals Oxford University in the Varsity Match at Twickenham in March.

Enfield is home to a large Cypriot community and Ignatians provide players for the island’s rugby team, which ply their trade in European Conference One South. Indeed, the Fayaz brothers, Hadee and Fadee, were ever-presents in a squad which won two of its four games, with highlights being wins against Slovenia (56-7) and previously unbeaten Hungary (35-17). Four Ignatians players also trained with the Cypriot ‘Barbarians’ squad at Altrincham, Cheshire, in the summer, and are in the mix for places in the away clash against Malta in November.

The youth section at the club is in rude health. In addition to minis rugby, the club also caters for the under-13s, 14s, 15s and 16s age ranges. The under-15s were in fine fettle recently, scoring a 40-36 win over Twickenham in their opening league game.

Just as pleasing is the fact that girls’ rugby has gained in popularity. A total of 40 players are currently registered with the club and our age bands, split over two years, range from the under-12s up to the under-18s, with players mainly recruited from local schools.

Explaining the club’s commitment to girls rugby, head coach Tom Mann said: “We advertise in secondary schools, support a primary tag tournament every year, hold girls’ recruitment sessions at the rugby club, run sessions at St Anne’s, AIM (Accessible Instructional Materials) and local primary schools.”

Elaborating on the many positives, he added: “[It’s great] the way our girls go about playing and training. They are a tight bunch who look after each other, get on really well, are respectful, hard-working and good fun.”

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