The club were one of 10 across Wales to receive funding as part of the WRU’s target of supporting innovative projects which will benefit rugby across the country.
After successfully applying for the first round of funding earlier this year, Machen’s first aid course, run in partnership with St John Ambulance, was delivered earlier this week with a dozen participants taking part.
These included club coaches and a number of younger volunteers who are no longer able to play the game due to injury but have shown an interest in taking part in the first aid course.
“We have got about seven teams plus a youth and senior side which includes about 200 kids and were looking to recruit new people who are first aid qualified,” explained the club’s project co-ordinator Euros Evans.
“We recognised we were short of people who had done a recognised first aid course and we felt running a course was the best thing we could do in terms of attracting new volunteers.”
Those who took part in the course, which was run by a trainer from St John, learned the basics of first aid, how to deal with injuries which take place on the rugby field and how to react to dangerous situations.
“To get a dozen people from different areas is great and we’ve got a great course which is what we were looking for, one which is focused on sport,” added Mr Evans.
“The kids are keen to do it too and if it goes well we might run some other courses or hopefully we might become recognised as a centre for first aid in the region.”
St John Ambulance Wales have run other first aid courses at clubs throughout Wales and hope more clubs will take up the chance to run a session of their own.
“The partnership with the WRU helps from our point of view as hopefully we are helping to improve health and safety in the sport,” said Wayne Jones from St John who led the session at Machen.
“If the numbers continue to increase hopefully the number of clubs taking part in first aid courses will increase and that will only benefit them.”
“One of the things we have always been desperate for is first aiders, we were really struggling at one stage,” added club chairman Sam Moore.
“It’s good to see people, especially the younger ones, volunteering to be involved.”
For more details on the next round of WRU funding go to www.mywru.co.uk.
