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On Saturday August 9th 2008, Mayfield, home to Dundee HSFP RFC, was the venue for the revival of the Dundee Rugby Select. A Dundee Select regularly played during the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s allowing the best players from Dundee clubs to test themselves against the top Scottish sides of the day plus home and away games against Orleans in France, another of Dundee's twin cities.

So what galvanised the local rugby community to ressurect the Dundee Select? The occasion for this little piece of Dundee and Midlands Rugby history was the visit of a select side from Dundee's twin city of Alexandria in Virginia, USA to contest the inaugural Mayor's Cup Challenge.

The Mayor's Cup Challenge was conceived in 2007 when representatives (including members of Alexandria Rugby) from Alexandria, Virginia visited the city. Meetings with local rugby clubs quickly established the concept of a rugby challenge between the two "sister cities" and the Mayor's Cup Committee was formed.

The inaugural Mayor's Cup organizing committee

Front Row: Bert Todd, Alexandria Rugby; John Letford, Lord Provost, Dundee; Bill Euille, Mayor, Alexandria; Gavin Garden, Dundee Rugby.
Back Row: Owen Malone, Alexandria Rugby; Dave Adam, Morgan Rugby; Ally Geddes, Morgan Rugby.

Like clubs in Dundee, Alexandria Rugby is working to raise the profile of the game back home and increase youth participation. One of their greatest strengths is that its membership transcends the traditional club boundaries which is also one of the goals of the Dundee Select .

Alexandria Rugby are also strongly involved with growing the game among the kids of their area, a task that strikes a chord with clubs in Dundee. Three junior clubs in Dundee, Dundee Eagles, Morgan Wasps and Panmure Panthers are testament to the efforts in that direction in Dundee and it's hoped that the creation of select teams both here and across "The Pond" will give rugby a further boost in both cities.

The Dundee Select side included players from the Dundee HSFP, Morgan Academy FP, Panmure and Harris FP clubs to face the combined might of Alexandria's 22 man squad drawn from ten clubs. Dundee's Ian Rankin took charge of coaching the side with Morgan's Ally Geddes, Team Manager and Harris coach Bruce Beckett, Assistant Coach.

The tour party from Alexandria arrived in Dundee on the 5th of August with 22 players.

John Baker: Wing, Washington Irish RFC
Treavor Beals: Center, Baltimore-Chesapeake RFC
Jim Canny: Flanker, Potomac Athletic Club
Patrick Christian: Flanker, Northern Virginia RFC
Ben Fisher: Prop, Northern Virginia RFC
Brian Flinchum: Center, Warrenton RF
Dan Giacomangeli: Lock, Washington RFC
Dan Gordon: Wing, Maryland Exiles RFC
Jeremy Gorney: Wing, Towson University
Sean Kelley: Flanker, Rocky Gorge RFC
Deron McElroy: Center, Washington RFC
Bob Mahari: Prop, Washington RFC
Chris Pacious: Prop, Maryland Exiles RFC
Phantamith Prompol: Eight, Northern Virginia RFC
Dan Randow: Lock, Baltimore-Chesapeake RFC
Sev Schnibbe: Scrum Half, Washington Irish RFC
Jim Sisco: Scrum Half, Northern Virginia RFC
Ashton Thomas: Center, Rocky Gorge RFC
Jade Tito: Fly Half, San Francisco Golden Gate RFC
Joe Tropea: Hooker, Northern Virginia RFC
Bill Weeks: Fullback, Rocky Gorge RFC
Tomas Zuokas: Prop, Potomac Athletic Club

A civic reception hosted by Dundee's Lord Provost John Letford was held in honour of the visitors at the Dundee City Chambers before they got down to the serious business of preparing for Saturday.

The Game

The match took place at Dundee HSFP's Mayfield ground with players from Dundee's three junior clubs providing a curtain raiser and the the ball boys for the Mayor's Cup Challenge itself.

Heavy rain before the match made for difficult conditions for Alexandria, however the game was still full of good handling, exciting running rugby and plenty of tries. The final score of 76 - 0 to Dundee delighted the home fans and was sportingly congratulated by the Alexandria party who stated their intention to put into practice the lessons learned from what was a fitter and more experienced Dundee side.

The match report can be found here with pictures of the day here.

Alexandria's Mayor's Cup experience can be found here.

The Re-match

Both Alexandria Rugby and Dundee felt that this historic first sporting meeting between the twin cities was a resounding success and plans are already being put in place for a return match in the summer of 2009.

A fund has been created to help finance Dundee's trip to Alexandria and the proceeds from the gate of the first Mayors' Cup Challenge has kick-started the fund-raising effort. Dundee Select's organisers are delighted that their sponsors this year, Bonar Yarns have indicated they are keen to maintain their involvement in a project that has united rugby in the city.

The prospect of regular meetings between the two cities will hopefully inspire future generations of rugby players to aspire to play for the honour of rugby in Dundee and more importantly play rugby in Dundee ... watch this space.

The Players

Name	Team
Chris Black	Morgan
John Brady	Morgan
Alan Brown	DHSFP
Stephan Dreyer	DHSFP
Neil Dymock	DHSFP
Cammy Ferguson	DHSFP
Ben Fulton	DHSFP
Lindsey Graham	DHSFP
Gordon Gray	Panmure
Euan Grewar	DHSFP
Allan Hay	DHSFP
Gavin Hughan	Morgan
Aaron Iddins	Morgan
Ricky Imrie	Morgan
Barry Jones	DHSFP
Mike Kerr	DHSFP
Graham Kiddie	Morgan
Ross Lemon	DHSFP
Richard McIver	Harris
Ryan Milne	DHSFP
Danie van Niekerk	Morgan
Kenny Watt	DHSFP

Thanks

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