Mouth guards help drill player safety

The club rugby union season may be some five months away, but the Arorangi Rugby Club is already ahead of the pack when it comes to safety.

This week the club received a generous donation of nearly 50 junior mouth guards – compulsory gear for rugby with the local body emphasising the message of ‘no mouth guard – no play’.

The donation, made by Kiwi visitors to the island Mike and Lee Anne Freeth and family, is a result of a friendship forged on a muddy Happy Valley rugby field.

Last year the couple and their children Dom (11) and Dani (9), who are from the wine region of Marlborough at the top of the South Island of New Zealand, holidayed at the Edgewater Resort in Arorangi where they met local musician Ru Taura playing with his band Ru and the Boys at the resort.

Rugby mad Dom was wearing an All Blacks jersey which dad Mike says prompted a rugby conversation with the local musicians.

Taura asked if young Dom wanted to play rugby and an eager “yes” from the young lad led to Arorangi Rugby Club president William Tuivaga being contacted and an invitation extended to Dom to play for the Arorangi Bears’ junior grade.

“The game was played at the Takuvaine field and it was a muddy game!” recalls Mike.

On game day however, the family scrambled through Avarua to buy a mouth guard for Dom as the ‘no mouth guard – no play’ rule had just been enforced by the local rugby body.

“We raced to town and got a mouth guard and it was a novelty for Dom to play without boots,” says Mike.

“The boys played in the mud then swam in the creek to wash off.”

Back home, Dom plays for the Motutere Football Rugby Club – the same club that local rugby star Francis Smith plays for and the region where local lads Andrew Purua and Noa Taio currently play their rugby.

Arorangi Rugby Club president William Tuivaga is really grateful to the Freeth family, with their donation strengthening the bond between the local club and family.

Tuivaga says the donated mouth guards will be used by the under 12 players of the Cowboys club where the emphasis in 2014 will be all about player safety.

Tuivaga says the club will also have emphasis on concussion prevention and management, with mouth guards proven to reduce the risk of dental damage and head injuries including concussions.

“We have a big emphasis at our club on preventing and managing concussions on and off the field and our drive for our juniors is safety first to prevent injury – we want them to go a long way in their rugby careers,” says Tuivaga.

Tuivaga says that not only will the Cowboys club be adhering and enforcing the mouth guard rule both at training and on game days – he says the club is also pushing to have all junior players in headgear for further injury prevention measures.

Cook Islands Rugby Union chief executive Ben Koteka says that safety in rugby is part of the rugby strategy to keep players injury free and the rugby fields to be competitive but safe.

Members of the Cowboys junior division were on hand to receive the mouth guard and re-acquaint with friend and import Cowboy 11-year-old Dom Freeth.