East Kilbride's Queen Bees side to play role in showcasing club's women's section at rugby festival

East Kilbride Rugby Club is set to be a hive of activity later this month when their ‘Queen Bees’ section help host an action-packed festival aimed at showcasing girls and women’s teams.

Attracting club sides from all around the country, involving around 300 players from the ages of 12 upwards, Torrance House will play host on Sunday, May 29.

EK’s women’s team and their Wannabees Touch Rugby Team will take part alongside the Queen Bees section for under-12 to under-18s.

There will also be teams attending from Oban, Cartha, Biggar, Hamilton, Marr, Wigtownshire, Irvine, Strathaven, Waysiders, Kilmarnock, Dumfries and Greenock.

But the festival will also be a chance for East Kilbride to promote the launch of a new women’s team for next season.

In previous years, the club has lost some of their best players to local rivals with no first team pathway available but that is set to change as the club aim to have a thriving women’s side for the first time in over two decades.

That plan is only now possible, in part, due to the success of the club’s Queen Bees section, whose under-16 side reached the semi-finals of the National Cup pre-Covid.

Women’s section coach Elaine Martin explained: “This coming season we are going to create a women’s team which will give the opportunity for our current U18 girls to stay in the game and still play for East Kilbride.

“Quite a few of our previous players are now playing for Cartha, Bigger and Hamilton as that was the only local clubs that could offer them to continue in with their sport.

“Back in the late 1990’s EK had a thriving ladies’ section, coached by Kenny MacDonald, and many of his players were capped for Scotland.

“As the years drifted on the section stopped playing due to work