As the saying goes, ‘charity begins at home’, so when packaging and Point-of-Sale manufacturer, Swanline Group were approached by one of its employees, Simon Bunn, to see whether they would consider sponsoring the Eccleshall and Longton U14 Barbarians Team, CEO Nick Kirby jumped at the chance. With a keen interest himself in rugby union and having played more years ago than Nick is prepared to admit, seeing the Swanline name on the lads kit was giving something back to the sport he loves.
With a closely knit community around Swanline’s headquarters in Stone, the Eccleshall RUFC facilities at Baden Hall are only a couple of miles away. Established in 1979, the club has teams from Under 7’s to seniors, and even a taste of the sport at entry level for three- to five-year-old kids. Grassroots junior teams have been hard to generate through COVID, so Eccleshall and Longton amalgamated their U14 teams to form a single Barbarians Team.
Simon Bunn commented, “I love coaching the U14’s Barbarians team who are a fantastic bunch of wannabe future stars! Club rugby, particularly at junior levels, relies heavily on voluntary work and is hard to fund, so to have Swanline sponsor our U14’s team means we can look forward to a great 2022. Longton Rugby Club supported the making of the Barbarians team, for which we are grateful.”
We wish the team the best of luck this season.