Members & Friends of Navan RFC,

Hello and welcome to the new season 2025-26. I am deeply honoured and proud to serve as President of our Club, particularly for the latter half of 2025 which sees the centenary of the formation of the Club on September 3rd. Our Centenary Book committee have completed their Herculean task and the book, a stunning record of 100 years of rugby in Navan and beyond, is now available online or in the Club bar. It is a splendid accumulation and distillation of 100 years of Navan RFC history, and I am proud to have played a part in its creation – it’s wonderful to have it in hand at last!

Our Club is in good health with over a thousand members, but we cannot afford to rest on our laurels. Many sports see a significant drop in numbers of young players, especially in the teenage years. As the pre-eminent Club in the North East, we are working to keep as many young players involved in our sport as possible, and we are delighted to see more Navan RFC players succeeding at provincial and national levels.

Having finished school or college, young people often travel to see the world, and rugby is a great international social passport. To those considering going abroad - we would be sorry to see you go, but equally we will be delighted to see you when you return, and Navan RFC will always be a home for you.

My sincere thanks to Eimer Hannon of Hannon Travel as the main Club sponsor for this season. Eimer’s ongoing support is greatly appreciated, as are all of our sponsors. We are working to ensure that our sponsors can realise and quantify the benefits that accrue from supporting Navan RFC.

I also want to offer heartfelt thanks to all of our volunteers: the players of all ages, the coaches, managers, medical and governance officers, my colleagues on the Executive Committee, our superb social media team, and anyone else who gives their time to play a part in keeping this huge show running. There is a massive amount of work involved in running the Club and, led by chairman Stephen Mackarel, we strive to ensure a manageable spread of that workload.

I wish an enjoyable and successful season to our supporters and to all of our teams – minis, youths, the Blue Dragons and the adult men’s and women’s teams, and to all the guests we will host during the season: opposition teams, spectators and match officials - all are welcome in our 101st year.

Keep an eye on Clubzap news and the Club website https://www.navanrfc.ie, as we have a number of exciting events lined up both on and off the pitches throughout the season. These will provide great opportunities to catch up with old (or new) friends and have the craic, and at the same time to support our Club. Here’s to another hundred years!