Inverness Craig Dunain Rugby Club aims to avoid cancelling more games due to no available venues
INVERNESS Craig Dunain are hopeful they will not have to postpone any further games due to having a lack of suitable venues to play home matches.
The club were forced to cancel last weekend’s matches for the men’s team and women’s team due to the pitch at Inverness High School being unsuitable to play rugby.
The club do not have a permanent home ground and usually play their home matches at Canal Park, home of Highland RFC and Naval Grounds in Invergordon, home of Ross Sutherland.
But both of those venues were unavailable last weekend, forcing ICD to find an alternative venue.
After a pitch inspection at Inverness High School on Friday night, they identified some potential health and safety risks.
It was also reported that the pitch had football goals and football lines when the inspection took place.
After the club held discussions with the referees, the decision was made that the pitch was not suitable and the men’s game with Moray 2nd XV and women’s game against Peterhead were both called off.
Club president Richard Keel hopes the issue will not happen again this season.
“Last weekend was an extreme manifestation of the problems that we have had for a while,” he said.
“We don’t have our own pitch and haven’t done for some time. We are working to try to rectify that situation. In the short term we are still reliant on booking pitches elsewhere.
“Last weekend, other pitches were busy and getting something together was difficult. At the last minute, we did get a booking that we were told that was a suitable pitch. But when we got there on Friday the pitch wasn’t suitable for playing adult rugby.
“For the rest of the season though, everything looks fine for us to be playing our fixtures as scheduled, subject to weather.”
Inverness Craig Dunain lost their previous home at Westercraigs to a housing development by Robertson Homes 23 years ago. As part of the original agreement, Robertson Homes were due to provide new sports facilities for the area to make up for the loss of the rugby pitch.
However in 2016, it was agreed that the developer would instead make a financial contribution towards a new facility to be created in Inverness.
The club were hopeful of new home ground on a new all-weather pitch at UHI, which saw planning permission granted in May last year. However Highland Council have put the £1.3 million project on hold amid spiralling costs.
Keel says not having their own home ground has had a negative impact on the club.
He said: “It limits us in what it allows us to do.
We can’t put our own branding at the venue and doesn’t give us a sense of belonging. It takes away an opportunity to have pitchside sponsorship, which is part of the lifeblood of any club.
“We need money coming in to allow the club to continue to operate.
“We are not in the same league as Ross Sutherland but Highland 3rd XV are our league rivals and playing our home games at Highland is not ideal. When their venues are busy, it is very difficult for us and try get a fixture fulfilled. Nobody likes cancelling a fixture, especially that late in the day.”
