New season and a new home venue ahead for the Pirates
March 16th, 2018
Adult fixtures for the 2018 National Leagues season have now been released, and we’re delighted to confirm a move to GHA RFC in Glasgow as our new home venue for senior and junior games.
The new National Leagues season begins for our senior Pirates on Sunday 22 April when we take on Sheffield Giants at Braidholm in Giffnock, home of Glasgow Hutchesons’ Aloysians Rugby Football Club.
“We’re delighted to be playing at Braidholm this year,” says Club Chair Amanda McDonald. “It offers us fantastic gameday facilities including a covered stand and club house, and we’re looking forward to the start of an exciting new partnership with GHA who’ve been extremely welcoming.”
The 2018 season also sees a new opponent for the Pirates, in the form of the newly promoted Manchester Titans, who replace Lancashire Wolverines in the Premier North. They join the Giants, Merseyside Nighthawks, Edinburgh Wolves and current British Champions Tamworth Phoenix to make up the conference.
The last time the Pirates played the Titans was back in 2011 when both teams were in Division 1. That year the Pirates took a record 100-0 win over the Mancunians, who failed to score in either their home or away games against EKP.
“Both clubs are in very different stages of development now,” said Amanda. “I have no doubt that the Titans will be a far more challenging prospect this year and will be looking for a very different scoreline! It’s also great to see another team with a strong club structure, offering youth, junior, flag and women’s football, promoted into the top tier. Our young players and our women’s teams have all played against each other at various points over the last few years, so we’re looking forward to our seniors getting in on the action now.”
A full list of adult fixtures is available here.
Fixtures for youth and junior football are still to be released. Youth tournaments for both East Kilbride Pirates youth and Hamilton Buccaneers youth will remain within South Lanarkshire, at Hamilton Palace Sports Ground.
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