Revamped rugby ready to roll out

A newly revamped Rarotonga club rugby union season will be unveiled this weekend.

This year the season will run for 22 weeks and will begin this weekend with the CITC pre-season sevens tournament. It will wrap up in early November with the hugely popular CIRU International Rugby Sevens Tournament.

The season will include nine weeks of rugby sevens and 13 weeks of 15s rugby.

This Saturday at the Avatiu field will be week one of the three week CITC pre-season sevens competition.

All six Rarotonga-based rugby clubs will participate in all grades a total of 26 teams over the three week competition.

The rugby grades are under 13, under 16, under 19 and senior men’s open sevens teams plus a City and Country women’s 10-a-side teams, who will also be part of the pre-season plan. With a lot more rugby being played, including the introduction of women’s rugby, this will ensure local players are best prepared for upcoming events at all levels of competition. This week’s season start will actually commence with rippa rugby for the under 9 and11-year-old boys and girls being played an hour prior to the sevens competition kick-off all good for strengthening our rugby development pyramid.

For the 2010 season, CIRU have been successful in securing CITC as their major sponsor for the year proudly supported by various sponsors such as Whatever Bar & Grill, Budget Rentals & Polynesian Bike Hire, FBI Fish Shop, Turtles, Air NZ and the Edgewater Resort.

Make sure you pick up your Cook Islands News tomorrow for more details on the rugby season including the full draw for Saturday’s start of the sevens tournament. - CIRU