Wasps boost as Stirling seek to build sevens in central belt
STIRLING County is launching a new sevens tournament for central Scotland with one of the club's most celebrated sons adding his endorsement.

The Bridgehaugh club has invited 20 teams to its tournament, to be staged on Saturday, 28 April, with a noon start. The format will be along similar lines to the successful Melrose event if all teams take up their invitations. As well as Kenny Logan fielding his own select side, his old club Wasps will also sending a team to take part.

Cartha Queen's Park run a successful tournament at Dumbreck each year, which is growing in popularity, while Boroughmuir launched an Edinburgh Sevens event last month which also proved a big hit in the capital. Sam Parlane, a former Stirling player, explained: "Sevens is a great event for bringing people to the club and attracting new people to rugby.

"It's also a great day out for players and families and we just felt it was about time we brought it back to Bridgehaugh."

Parlane said that there was great enthusiasm for sevens around the club in recent times, yet either because County had declined successive invitations to other events or due to their drop out of the top division, they had lost old opportunities to compete on the Borders circuit.

The tournament will clash with Langholm Sevens in the Borders and so no Borders clubs are able to attend this year, but Stirling will have a strong line-up of Scottish talent including Heriot's, Currie, Glasgow Hawks and Edinburgh Accies.

Parlane added: "We have been quite poor and not given it our all in past, but we want to put our name out there and get back to the Borders events and elsewhere. Starting with our own [tournament] should help that and show people we're willing. Graeme Logan and myself have been very keen and Graeme's cousin Kenny said he'd help as much as he could.

"We'll also have a junior tournament in the morning, with the final the curtain-raiser on main pitch, and a big party with live music at night.

"We're hopeful that it will be a success and we can add it to the calendar and perhaps, in future, have the Borders clubs involved as well."

Meanwhile, Selkirk have enticed Cardiff back to Philiphaugh in August to defend the trophy won at the start of the Border sevens season last year.

This article was posted on 18-Apr-2007, 07:00 by Hugh Barrow.