Howe of Fife prepare for a new season

Over the last couple of weeks rugby has returned to Cupar and beyond with pre-season fixtures being played.

The Howe of Fife first XV were on their travels to Forfar to play Strathmore RFC and came away with 19-31 victory.

The Crusaders played two matches against Edinburgh Northern and Liberton with two solid wins.

The most pleasing aspect, the club say, is the numbers available with nearly 50 senior players vying for places.

The youth section have had games against Glenrothes and Kinross with games this weekend coming against Perthshire.

Mini rugby training has also started on Sundays at 9.30am at the park.

This weekend sees the Fife Festival Of Rugby being held at the Duffus involving up to 12 teams from all kingdom clubs plus St Andrews University. The teams are competing for the Fife Cup, plate, shield and bowl.

The tier two competition kicks off at 1pm with tier one kicking off at 3.3pm. This will be a highly competitive festival with each team attempting to claim some bragging rights.

The weekend after sees the real business starts with the Howe first XV and Crusaders playing Hillhead Jordanhill RFC and Stobswell RFC respectively on Saturday.

On Sunday the Harlequins kick of their season at home against Ayr.

After the last 18 months, the clubs says it is again looking forward to what it hopes will be a near normal season of rugby across the squads and hopes to regain the momentum gathered by the squads from the shortened 2019/2020 season.