It was a week to remember for the young players of Loch Lomond Rugby Club as they were giving the chance to get up close to a piece of sporting history when one of the most famous prizes in the sport paid a visit to training.

After some hard organisational work behind the scenes, officials from Scottish Rugby kindly brought the Calcutta Cup down to Argyll Park in Alexandria.

Contested between Scotland and England every year, the Calcutta Cup was made in 1878 from 270 melted down silver rupee coins.

Scotland’s 25-13 victory over England in last year’s Six Nations means they are the current holders and the cup has clocked up plenty of mileage touring the country since that famous Murrayfield victory.

Its appearance in Alexandria will long be remembered by Loch Lomond’s junior players with every age group from primary 1 to 3 right up to the U14s given the chance to see and have their photograph taken with the highly decorative piece of sporting silverware. And who knows, some of them might get the chance to lift the cup in the future as Scotland internationals.

Elsewhere, the Lomond U11s were honoured to be selected to play in a festival of rugby at Scotstoun Stadium.

Sponsored by Land Rover to promote grassroots rugby, the team played in a competitive pool against clubs from all over Scotland.

It was fantastic experience for the Lomond youngsters to take to the same pitch their Glasgow Warriors heroes play on.