A group of US students from Belmont Abbey College, North Carolina recently paid a visit to Donegal to study the Donegal Community Rugby Project.

The trip to Donegal was part of ten day study which began with stays in Dublin and Armagh where they did some research into soccer and gaelic sports including a tour of the Aviva Stadium. The group’s objective during their stay was to learn more about sport in Ireland both north and south, particularly
grassroots programming, facilities and governance structures of Irish sports.

Ulster Branch Community Rugby Officer Darren McGuigan met the group in south Donegal at Ballyshannon RFC where he gave a presentation on the Donegal Project before a game of Tag Rugby with the Ballyshannon Ladies team on the Lakeside Center synthetic pitch.The students received some Ulster Rugby goodies as momentos of their short stay.

Afterwards the group made their way to Donegal Town where they met club officials and got to watch their first live game of rugby as the Donegal 1st XV played host to Larne.