NelsoN College - TRIP To eNglANDINTeRNATIoNAl Rugby 7’s TouRNAmeNT

- Hosted at Rugby School in England

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Nelson College will rep-resent New Zealand at a global secondary schools sevens rugby tournament at the birthplace of the game, Rugby School in England, later this month.Nelson College, widely re-garded as the birthplace of rugby in New Zealand will send a 12-strong line up of first XV players to the event which will be part of Rugby School’s 450th celebrations in 2017.The squad will be coached by former Tasman Mako Andrew Goodman and will face teams from Canada Wales, England, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Australia and South Africa amongst others.It will also give the team

a chance to play on The Close grounds where Wil-liam Webb Ellis is said to have invented the game by picking up a soccer ball and running with it in 1823.Nelson College’s presence at the tournament has been supported by both the Tas-man Rugby Union and the New Zealand Rugby Union.Nelson College team man-ager Peter Grigg says the team is keen to make an impression on the tourna-ment.“All 12 of the squad have trained really hard over the summer months to get ready for this and I believe we are as prepared as we can be.“While it has meant a bit of a disjointed first XV prepa-

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As New Zealand’s sole representa-tives, Nelson College will look to take out the International Rugby 7’s tournaments being hosted by Rugby School in England to help celebrate the Schools 450th Anniversary.

ration for our (UC Championship) season, we know it’s a terrific oppor-tunity for the boys to be part of and I know they will do the region proud.Peter says it was difficult to assess how strong the other teams would be he was confident his team had the speed and fitness levels needed to impress.“Any team coached by Andrew Good-man is going to be ready to go.”

Nelson College is condsidered the birthplace of rugby in New Zealand. Photo: Chris Symes/Shuttersport.