Rugby

IRFU Community Partner

Rugby at a professional level will always receive the highest profile, but a growing and vibrant club league is crucial to the ongoing success of the sport. Local clubs and club players are the life-blood of the game and the Ulster Bank League in 2011/2012 will no doubt showcase some of the stars of the future. Ulster Bank strengthened its link with Irish Rugby last year, becoming the Official Community Partner to the IRFU, a partnership which includes title sponsorship of the All-Ireland Club League along with the Irish Club International team until 2014.

Ulster Bank Rugby Force

Our drive into the heart of rugby in Ireland, into the club and the community, was highlighted with the creation last year of a new club volunteer initiative, Ulster Bank RugbyForce, a programme designed to help unite club members and local volunteers to improve their club and community rugby facilities. An excellent response saw clubs from all over the country enter with four lucky clubs winning €5,000 worth of goods and resources. The four winning clubs (Wexford Wanderers RFC, Ballina RFC, Thomond RFC and Ballymoney Rugby Club) took part in recent Ulster Bank RugbyForce Winning Weekends, which brought together their members to spend the day renovating their facilities.

Visit our dedicated Ulster Bank RugbyForce site for more details and look out for your chance to enter your club in next season’s Ulster Bank RugbyForce programme.

RBS 6 Nations

Our parent company The Royal Bank of Scotland has sponsored the 6 Nations tournament since 2003. This has helped establish the championship as the highlight of the northern hemisphere rugby season. During the RBS 6 Nations 2011 Ulster Bank hosted a nationwide trophy tour with players and also toured the country with the Ulster Bank kick for a ticket. Further information can be found on our decdicated Ulster Bank Rugby site

This year Ulster Bank teamed up with RTE during the RBS 6 Nations in RTE’s first ever cross platform broadcast sponsorship. Our RugbyForce ads were broadcast before and after each RTE ad break during the all of the Rugby coverage