A RUGBY team founded by a trio of Forth Valley clubs are thriving a year on from its inception.

Kelpies Rugby was founded by Hillfoots, Grangemouth and Falkirk rugby clubs last year to give the boys and girls of the Forth Valley an opportunity to play rugby combining their playing numbers and coaches.

Now, they are fielding boys and girls teams at each age group and on Sunday the Kelpies U16 boys visited Alloa RFC for a Midlands Conference Festival.

The boys played two games with the first against Stirling County.

After a slow start and losing three tries the boys found their feet and hit back with two tries of their own to close out the first half one try down.

The second half started well but turned in Stirling's favour with a single consolation try for Kelpies.

Next up was Alloa and Carnoustie playing a composite team.

This game was completely different with Kelpies holding the upper hand throughout with some great passages of play with many into over ten phases of play.

It ended up a very competitive game with Kelpies the eventual victors.

Meanwhile, at Glenrothes RFC, the U14s played in their festival with their opening game was against the host side and it proved to be a very open affair with some great play.

When the Kelpies team started using the ball in wider channels, they were able to push home the advantage and with great support work they came out on top with their first win of the day.

Their second game was a tighter affair with less numbers per side to match Blairgowrie RFC.

Tiredness took its toll but again when the Kelpies used the ball out wide against Blairgowrie they scored some great tries.

It was a very good team effort and display of both ball handling and fitness from the Kelpies was seen demonstrating the hard work that they had put in during training and demonstrating the great progress from the mini level of rugby.

Meanwhile, Hillfoots Juniors were also playing away at a tournament hosted by Glasgow Hutchesons Aloysius RFC.

The P4-5 team faced some stiff opposition from GHA and Marr, but focusing on their skills and straight running paid dividends.

The mixed team worked hard on their structure in both attack and defence, but against bigger sides, it was a steep learning curve.

There were many great individual performances which helped encourage the others in the team – lots of positives for everyone – tired but there were happy smiling faces for the drive back home, according to one coach.