Bermuda Commercial Bank Limited (“BCB” or “the Bank”) is proud to be a supporter of Girl’s and Women’s Rugby in Bermuda. Women’s Rugby is one of the fastest growing sports in the world with women and girls currently playing rugby in over 110 countries. Internationally, the expansion of Women’s Rugby has resulted in unprecedented opportunities for the Women’s Game including elite tournaments such as the IRB Women’s World Sevens Series introduced in 2011, Women’s Rugby World Cup 2014 in France and the addition of the sport to the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.
BCB has partnered with the Bermuda Rugby Football Union (“BRFU”) to help build the Girls’ Youth Programme and recently provided funding for the new BRFU Women’s Rugby kits. The BRFU has recently received government support as well, and has begun implementing primary school, middle school and adult women’s contact and touch training programmes. Having already both contact and touch rugby in place for the Bermuda Select Women’s teams, which will be entering major tournaments this year, the BRFU aims to have developed a competing Bermuda Youth National Girls team by the end of 2013. Anthi Xipolia, the BRFU Women’s Representative, commented that “With the generous contribution from our major sponsor BCB, and additional support from the Government Department of Youth and Sports, we will be able to expand our programme and coach rugby to primary school girls at every public school in Bermuda by the end of this year. The definitive aim of our programme is to introduce rugby to girls whose schools may not currently exercise a rugby curriculum. Furthermore, we hope that in the future, those girls may hopefully want to pursue rugby and represent Bermuda in rugby organisations both on and off island.”
The Bank understands the importance of encouraging youth, and especially women and girl’s participation in sports. Horst E. Finkbeiner II, COO and Director of BCB, stated “With our close association with the London Harlequins we are now really pleased to encourage our young Bermudian girls to get passionate about this competitive sport. BCB is committed to providing the opportunity where these girls can compete and excel at a high level while developing discipline, drive and determination.” Women’s Rugby around the world is built on the values of integrity, respect, solidarity, passion and discipline. As a result, the women’s game places high value on a code of conduct, accountability, and good sportsmanship. We are extremely proud of our Bermuda Women’s Contact Team who recently finished 4th in the Plate Final of the New York 7’s Social Division tournament and in February finished as Shield Winners in the Invitational Division of the Las Vegas Sevens Tournament, a hugely prestigious tournament that reaches audiences of over 40,000. As the largest rugby tournament in North America, and one of the premier Sevens tournaments in the world, the event attracts top international sides, with the likes of New Zealand and South Africa, to club and high school sides and has become an international sporting showcase.
Rugby is a sport for all and true to its values. The BRFU and BCB hope to grow the global rugby family locally.
We are proud of our Women players and their success so far this year. We are encouraged that many Bermudian girls want to learn more about the sport, and the game will continue to become a popular pastime for our youth.
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