THE New Year has brought new challenges for the Malvern Angels rugby squad at Spring Lane with the senior side setting their sights on league status at the start of the new season.

The Angels have experienced mixed fortunes since the start of the season. The Malvern Angels youth section (MAYS), which caters for girls aged between nine to 14-years-old, has seen a steady increase in numbers and this has helped the MAYS to maintain a presence in the West Midlands Tag Rugby League, of which the Malvern Angels are the current reigning champions.

However, the MAYS want to build upon their success and a number of new initiatives are in the pipeline to encourage more girls to take up rugby as a chosen sport.

One of these is a Super 7's Tag-Rugby Challenge competition, which is based on the same format as the highly successful Super 12's Challenge competition played between the Year 7 boys from The Chase, Hanley Castle and Dyson Perrin's high schools.

Invitations with details of the competition will be sent out to schools and colleges later in the month and the Angels are expecting a very positive response.

In stark contrast to the success of the MAYS, the number of senior players in the squad has declined, which put an end to the hopes of entering a senior team into the regional women's league this season.

Nevertheless, all is not lost and the Angels are determined to begin a recruitment campaign throughout the area to ensure that they can take a place in the regional league next September.

To start the ball rolling, squad training has been reduced to one evening a week (Tuesdays) with greater emphasis being placed on core rugby skills and match skills. In return, the senior players will be encouraged to work on their own fitness programmes at the Banana Fitness Centre on Thursday evenings by taking advantage of a favourable membership deal between the club and the fitness centre.

Other promotional events will be announced in due course including a challenging fixture programme that will see more womens rugby being played at Spring Lane than of late.

For more information about how girls and women of all ages can become involved with the Malvern Angels as a player, coach or an administrator, please call the Angels on 07817 222557.