THE 2024 Inter-District Championship for male club players at Premiership level or below will kick-off in March after its successful revival last season, with this year’s competition to be played in a round-robin format meaning three games each rather than the two-match knock-out approach of 2022-23.
All four head coaches from last year’s championship will continue in their respective roles, with several new assistant coaches joining the four teams.
The dates for the fixtures are as below:
Round 1 (22/23/24 March 2024):
Edinburgh v The South
Glasgow & The West v Caledonia Reds
Round 2 (29/30/31 March 2024):
Edinburgh v Caledonia Reds
The South v Glasgow & The West
Round 3 (05/06/07 April 2024):
Glasgow & The West v Edinburgh
Caledonia Reds v The South
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Colin Sangster of Dundee Rugby will once again lead the coaching team for Caledonia Reds, last season’s champions, assisted by Kevin Wyness (Highland/GHA), Junior Bulumakau (Highland) and Sam Mountain (unattached), while Stewart Lathangie (Howe of Fife) also joins the staff, with Darrell Russell (Strathmore) appointed for Strength and Conditioning.
“The games generated a huge amount of interest in the Caledonia district last season, and hopefully we can build on that, whilst providing an opportunity for aspiring amateur players to play at a higher level,” said Sangster.
Meanwhile, Hawick’s Matty Douglas will once again be assisted by Iain Chisholm (Melrose), while Gordon Henderson (Selkirk) and Bruce McNeil (Kelso) have joined the coaching team.
“The players and management team really bought into the shortened competition last season along with the whole of the region and getting over 1,500 supporters at Netherdale on a Tuesday night was a great experience to be involved in,” said Douglas.
“We were disappointed to lose out in the final and are eager to get cracking again in March. Having added Bruce McNeil and Gordon Henderson and with Iain Chisholm continuing his role we have a great coaching team with a wealth of experience so we will be looking to be as competitive as we can. I’m sure the buy in will be second to none and we can’t wait to get started.”
Glasgow & the West head coach Kenny Diffenthal (Marr) will again be assisted by Thomas Davidson (Glasgow Hawks) and Stephen Adair (also Marr).
“It was a really good team effort in the last outing so I hope for more of the same from all players and staff,” said Diffenthal. “I really enjoyed working with Stephen Adair and Thomas Davidson so hopefully we can build on what we did previously. It’s really good that it is back up and running and will be beneficial for all involved.”
It is also the same again for Edinburgh with Bob McKillop (Edinburgh) working alongside Iain Berthinussen (Edinburgh Academical) and Mark Cairns (Currie Chieftains).
“The reintroduction of the IDC last season really whetted everyone’s appetite, and our game against the South at Netherdale is the type of experience we all want to be part of,” said McKillop. “I’m expecting excitement levels to be up a few more notches this season.”
Team selections will be made and announced in the New Year.
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Great to have this back again. Hopefully games will be livestreamed again for those who are unable to be there in person.
Apologies, it’s April not June for the final round.
Be brilliant to have an under 20 (or something ) competition for club players aswell 🤷♂️
Just wondered why we have to wait till June 5th for the final round ? Surely it would be better to complete the competition in early April in the interests of player welfare.
Great news to see the District championship being revived,expanded and factored into this season’s programme. Next stage hopefully, would be to include an Anglo Scots side.
Really excited that the Inter-District is returning, this time in full format. Disappointing that Edinburgh and Glasgow, the 2 districts who didn’t fully commit to the competition have been given 2 home matches. Just hope the latter plays at least one tie away from the city. A great opportunity to bring representative rugby to a proper club ground. At least we are spared the idiocy of having a Futures side levered in.
Cmon the SOOTH
Great to see this competition back this season. Thoroughly enjoyed watching the games last season. The only criticism I would have had of last season was that a couple of the teams were inclusive of only a very small number of clubs, mainly the clubs the coaches were aligned to. It would be good to see coaches see past their own club’s players and look to other clubs too, even if they are their local rivals! This would garner even more interest in the competition if the clubs with players involved were more diverse.