Recent entries from teams in Portugal & the Czech Republic means there are now teams from 8 countries already registered for the 2012 World Vintage Rugby Carnival to be staged in Hawaii from September 23-30, 2012.
In this sixth newsletter you will read about new teams coming to Hawaii, meet two of them, be reminded about the good value of the carnival ground packages and that Vintage Rugby is now on Facebook and view another video about Hawaii.
Read on, and welcome to Newsletter No 6 - Take a wander … everything is just a click of the mouse away.
 |
|
Since our last newsletter Vintage Rugby has experienced a European invasion plus new teams from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. 12 months prior to the carnival teams from South Africa, Australia, Switzerland, USA, Argentina, Norfolk Island, New Zealand, Portugal and the Czech Republic are already registered. New entries received since our last newsletter include Clube de Rugby de Juromenha from Portugal, the Moravian Eagles from the Czech Republic, 3 New Zealand sides – Hokonui 3 Stars (Southland), Suburbs Marauders and Burnside Battlers (Canterbury), 3 Australian teams - ACT Veterans from Canberra and the Killara West Pymble Limping Leos and Cairns Old Crocs from Queensland and a new team from South Africa the JHB Bobbies. Many other teams have committed to enter in the next few weeks so it’s shaping up to be a great international week of vet rugby in Hawaii.
|
It’s interesting to note that many of the registered teams have confirmed big travelling groups – Condamine Codgers (45), Hokonui 3 Stars (40), Moravian Eagles (45), Clube de Rugby Juromenha (49), Endeavour Hills Rat Bags (45), Texas XXX’s (45) and the Bustard Eagles (60) – Hawaii is obviously a very attractive destination and it's shaping up to be a BIG week of Vintage Rugby !
The Burleigh Bodgies from the Gold Coast of Australia (early bird entry prize winner announced in our last newsletter) sent a report about their fundraising activities. Team leader Ian Davis told Vintage Rugby “ we have been doing Pub raffles every Friday afternoon at their local pub, Tree Tops Tavern for over 18 years ! From day one the proceeds from these raffles have been used to subsidise our touring costs. It is also a great venue to catch up with our members and have a beer or two. We’ve also managed to pick up new members from other patrons.
We recently held a car rally for members, family, and friends. We had a small entry fee, and ended with a picnic and ran a raffle on the day.
One of our players obtained an old beer keg and removed the bung. We now take this to all club functions and the idea is that anyone can throw in their loose change. In conjunction with this we are running a guessing competition to guess how much will be in the keg when we empty it prior to Hawaii 2012. The proceeds from the guessing competition also goes into the keg. The prize will be 10% of the contents and will be won by the person who is closest to the final amount.”
|
|
Clube de Rugby de Juromenha is the first Portugese team to participate in a Vintage Rugby Carnival. We asked team leader Paulo Jaleco to tell us about the team. He told us that the club was founded in 1997 and the veterans team was created in 2001 when they played in an international tournament in Loulé, Algarve. On that occasion they joined up with Rugby Roma and R.C. Loulé. They enjoyed that so much they started to play in several vet events in Spain, France, Wales, Brazil, Uraguay and Chile. Following their participation in the 10th European Golden Oldies Rugby Festival in Wales the team was named "Crocks of the Festival" as ‘the team who played the best rugby during the festival’.
|
|
|
The club’s home is in Juromenha which is a very small and historical village, near the Guadiana River and the Spanish border, in a region called Alentejoa. The total population is only 80 people, and their players come from different parts of Portugal and Spain. The club has a great relationship with Club de Rugby de Badajoz, from Spain with whom they created an Association called " Associação Interfronteiriça Rugby Guadiana", with the purpose of playing in other veterans events. Every year, usually in the second weekend of May, they organise their own festival which is included in the European Veteran Rugby Association Festival Series, called "Juromenha Rugby Oldies Festival ".
This is the team’s first Vintage Rugby Carnival and they are looking forward to making many new rugby friends in Hawaii in 2012. |
|
Battleship Old Boys is part of the Battleship RFC (both formed in 1975) in Mobile, Alabama, USA. Most of their Mobile based players have been with the team since the 1980’s. Next year they will be attending their 5th Vintage Rugby Carnival having played in 4 previous carnivals in Limerick, Buenos Aires, Christchurch and Cape Town. Over the years they have also travelled to England, Scotland, Wales, Bermuda and the Bahamas. At previous carnivals they have focused on attempting to cover as many of the local population and statues with their distinctive Mardi Gras beads – look out Honolulu !
|
|
 |
There are 47 different Hawaii Carnival ground packages which are all very reasonably priced and vary depending on the level of accommodation chosen by the team.The favourable international exchange rate makes these packages great value for money. Hawaii Carnival package prices start at US$1035 p.p. Here are 6 currency comparison examples in different categories.
| |
Currency Comparisons as at 10 August 2011
|
US$
|
Rand
|
Can$
|
GBP£
|
AU$
|
NZ$
|
Euro€
|
|
1745
|
12705
|
1735
|
1069
|
1716
|
2133
|
1226
|
|
1570
|
11430
|
1561
|
962
|
1543
|
1919
|
1103
|
|
1475
|
10742
|
1467
|
904
|
1450
|
1804
|
1036
|
|
1325
|
9649
|
1319
|
812
|
1302
|
1621
|
931
|
|
1205
|
8768
|
1199
|
738
|
1184
|
1474
|
847
|
|
1035
|
7530
|
1030
|
634
|
1017
|
1244
|
728
|
|
|
 |
What You Get for Your Money ?
The packages include:
• Seven nights accommodation in the category of your choice.
• Meet and greet on arrival in Honolulu with a traditional Lei welcome.
• Transfers on arrival and departure from Honolulu airport. The fields and social function venues are within walking distance of the hotels.
• Souvenir Carnival programme Guide and survival kit with discount vouchers, maps etc.
• A quality 2012 World Vintage Rugby Carnival gift.
• A 3-hour Cocktail Party to include entertainment, dancing, unlimited wine, beer and soft drinks and a substantial finger food buffet.
• A 5-hour finale Dine and Dance function to include entertainment, unlimited wine, beer and soft drinks and a table served 3 course meal.
• Local service charges and taxes.
• Baggage and porterage costs.
YOUR CHANCE TO PUT YOURSELF IN THE HAWAII CARNIVAL PICTURE
• Enjoyable Rugby, great company-Vintage Rugby Hawaiian style - fun and friendship for players and partners.
• The historic Queen Kapiolani Park with fields just metres from the famous beaches of Waikiki will host the games.
• The grounds and social function venues are just a short walk from the Carnival hotels.
• You can bring your wife or partner to enjoy one of the world’s leading tourist destinations. Hawaii is well endowed with a wide variety of experiences to explore.
• Teams from all over the rugby playing world will be in Hawaii in 2012 – you can add your team colours to this unique event by registering now. |
 |
Did you know that there was a time when numbering players was frowned upon as it smacked of tawdry professionalism. Thanks to South African Rugby writer Paul Dobson and Planet Rugby we are able to reprint the fascinating history of team numbers.
These days nobody bothers about professionalism - nobody, that is, except those who have to pay the players and the coaches and the fitness trainers and the first aid people and the PR people and the media liaison officers and so on and on, as rugby becomes the gigantic employment opportunity it never was.
Numbers have taken the place of names in referee speak. ?
Off-side, Number 6.?
Get onside, 8.?
Numbers have replaced the jargon of position. Who is the best 9 in the country? I’m not sure whether to play him at 6 or at 7.? (Note the origin of being at sixes and sevens!)
When England first wore numbers at Twickenham, on 18 March 1922, King George V, a keen rugby supporter, turned to the secretary of the Scottish Rugby Union, the conservative J Aikman Smith, and said, "I see England have numbers. What a good idea. When are Scotland going to get numbers?” In indignation, Aikman Smith replied: "Sire, my players are men, not cattle." And the story has it that he refused to speak to His Majesty for the rest of the afternoon.
Numbers, it is believed, were first used in 1897 in Brisbane when the New Zealanders played Queensland. "As an experiment to assist spectators, a number will be placed on each player's back."
When they were brought to Sydney in 1904 players objected because it was too convenient a way for referees to identify miscreants.
On 21 January 1922 numbers were used in a Five Nations match for the first time - when England played Wales at Cardiff Arms Park. It rained. Wales won 28-6.
The Springboks wore numbers on the 1906-07 tour, though not against Scotland. Their opponents sometimes wore numbers, e.g. Yorkshire, Middlesex, Newport, East Midlands. The Springboks wore tour numbers. That means that the player always played in the number given him for the tour. 29 could play next to 3. This was common practice till well after World War II.
It would seem that the 1905-06 All Blacks did not wear numbers.
The International Rugby Board first discussed the numbering of players in 1921 when Wales and England let it be known that they intended to number their players. "The Board expressed the view that this was a matter for the several unions to decide on, having regard to the wishes of their players."
Howard Marshall - of Haileybury, Oxford, Harlequins and the Barbarians and for years the rugby correspondent of the Daily Telegraph - wrote in 1936 in an article entitled What Rugger Means to Me: " Here I must make what is probably my last protest against the numbering of players. I remember how I resented this cattle-branding when I was playing myself, and my unholy delight when the numbered jerseys did not correspond with the programmes. |
 |
Rugby football is not a game for such fripperies as numbering and programmes; it is not a game to be watched by any but those who have played it and understand it."
In 1933 soccer players were numbered at the FA Cup Final for the first time. Everton, who won, played Manchester City. Everton were numbered 1-11, Manchester City 12-22. Celtic still refuse to wear numbers on their backs.
Sometimes teams have worn letters - to confuse pirate programme sellers.
The All Blacks did that in 1921.Confusing pirate programme sellers was not the only reason. There was also the belief that a single letter was less confusing than two numbers. The famous English clubs, Bristol and Leicester Tigers, used letters, from A to O, until the advent of professionalism and TV exposure. Bristol had 'A' at fullback, Leicester 'O' at fullback. When they played it looked as if a whole lot of scrabble tiles had been flung onto the field. In 1999 they changed from letters to numbers.
Some prefer not to use numbers in the pious belief that the game is a team game and no individual is so important that attention should be drawn to him. Schools especially like this as it suggests that rugby is valued as a part of education with value in teamwork and effort, not a means of marketing an individual.
There have been times when teams have not had used a number 13 but a 16 instead, out of superstition. Then you get players like Danie Gerber who insisted on using the number 13! Bath RFC does not have a No. 13, using 16 instead. West Hartlepool no longer have a No. 5 after a lock John Haw died of a heart attack during a match in 1994.
At one stage the fullback was Number 1. The front row wore Nos 8,9,10, the locks were 11 & 12, the loose forwards 13,14,15. Or, more frequently, the front-row went 13, 14, 15, the locks 11 & 12, and the loose forwards 10, 9, 8. The number 8 has, down the years, more frequently worn 8 than any other position has stayed with a number. The loose forwards are lumped together as they were the back row in the old 3-2-3 scrum formation, and are still called the back-row even though scrums seldom have a back row in modern times. The loose-forwards are still 6,7,8 as if they formed a back-row but with the player at the back as the No.8. South Africa invented this scrum formation and developed that player’s modus operandi and call him the eighth man.
Just after World War II in the Five Nations, numbering was from 1 to 15, starting with the fullback at 1. From the beginning of the Sixties the numbering changed to what it is today. From 1966 on it became uniform in Test matches that the numbering be from 15 to 1 or, if you like, 1 to 15 where 15 was the fullback and 1 the loosehead.
The IRB, like most law making bodies, are often reactive. Something happens and then you make a law to cover it/govern it/get rid of it. They decided to order the numbering for matches under their jurisdiction.
The positions should be as follows, the numbers being for teams which wear numbers:
15 fullback
14 wing (right)
13 centre
12 centre, second five-eighth
11 wing (left)
10 flyhalf, first five-eighth
9 scrumhalf, halfback
8 eighth man, number 8
7 flank
6 flank
5 lock
4 lock
3 prop (tighthead)
2 hooker
1 prop (loosehead) |
 |
The names and numbers have been given for the positioning of a team at a scrum, for in olden days the scrum was the most important facet of play. Games in fact were almost one long scrum. Now they are important but far less so.
David Campese wore a Number 11 jersey though he played on the right wing.
In 1998 the All Blacks wore a 2 on their sleeves ? a tribute to Sean Fitzpatrick who had just recently retired.
The use of replacements, first for injury and then as tactical substitutions, has led to a fairly orderly bench. There are as many as seven players on the bench, often but not always split 4-3 between forwards and backs. The bench is numbered from 16 to 22 where, often but not always, 16 is a hooker, 17 a prop, and 20 a scrumhalf. Many consider a team as now consisting of 22 players with a maximum of 15 on the field at any one time.
CREDIT: South African Rugby writer Paul Dobson and Planet Rugby
The 7-day Hawaii Carnival will include 3 playing days, two huge social functions, an exciting optional midweek trip and a comprehensive sightseeing and activity programme. Full details about the 2012 Hawaii Carnival can be found on this website. Details include information about the
Carnival Programmeand
Package Costs.
BE PART OF THE 5TH WORLD VINTAGE RUGBY CARNIVAL BY REGISTERING NOW - Enter on-line here
There really is no better way to be kept up to speed with the latest news and photo's from Vintage Rugby than browsing our Facebook page. Better still if you click the "like" button you will instantly become a fan of the Vintage Rugby page and will receive news feeds in real time. To do this you need to register for Facebook in order to receive these updates. Registering your Facebook page is very simple. All you need to do is log on to
World Vintage Rugby Facebook, fill in the "Sign Up" form (First Name, Last Name, Your E-mail, Password and Birthday), Facebook will send you a confirmation e-mail and that's it!
And for those of you who have been with us since Limerick, you are in for a pleasant surprise. We have photos uploaded onto the Vintage Rugby Facebook page from the Limerick Carnival 2004, Buenos Aires Carnival 2006, Christchurch 2008 and Cape Town 2010. We even managed to post a great video clip of the Condamine Codgers in Cape Town.
If you have video or photos you would like us to post to the Vintage Rugby Facebook page please e-mail them to usand we will upload them.
So don't be shy, check out the WORLD VINTAGE RUGBY FACEBOOK, have a look or drop us a line, we would love to hear from you.
 
|
|
In case you are a first-time reader of this newsletter a reminder about the origins of Vintage Rugby maybe helpful. There have been many rugby social events, vet tours and tournaments based around the great game, played in all sorts of formats for various age groups. And then in 2002 along came, Vintage Rugby with a new friendly style that preserves the spirit and traditions of Rugby and allows players of all ages and abilities to continue to play rugby and travel all over the world every 2 years - at destinations chosen by the players and their partners.
Vintage Rugby is all about Fun, Friendly Competition and Companionship on and off the field. It’s an ideal way to prolong rugby careers, to encourage past players to return to their clubs, to travel to fabulous rugby destinations and to enjoy playing this wonderful sport against like minded lovers of the great game.
The Vintage Rugby organising team includes rugby people with over 20 years of experience arranging veteran rugby events. For details about the organisers and the International Vintage Rugby Advisors click here >>> .
The emphasis at each Carnival is on enjoyment. Teams are graded according to fitness and ages so there are no Carnival winners. There are awards recognising the oldest players and teams who entered into the spirit and enjoyment of the carnival week.
The carnival rules and playing conditions ensure all teams are offered the chance to play rugby as competively as they wish. Read all about the Carnival Laws and Age Groupings >>> |
'The Stories of Hawaii' is a collection of 2 minute videos produced by Hawaii Tourism which features local personalities sharing their stories of what makes Hawaii so unique. The 3rd in this series is 'O'ahu Art & Nightlife'.
We hope you enjoy this unique presentation.
