Burnside Rugby Gala Day

Today our rugby club had a Gala Day to gather our rugby community together for a fun day out and raising some funds for our club.

I organised our team to bring bags of jaffas and a donation of money. I put all the jaffas in a jar and we charged $1 to guess the total. There were 1498 in the jar and a young girl guessed within 2 of that total! I changed all the money collected into 10cent coins and Al built this tower which we filled with the coins and people paid $1 to guess this total. It was a lot of fun for the participants.























This is a giant inflatable obstacle slide which kids paid to enjoy, it proved to be very much fun!

















This is the end of the line for the Sheep racing, or "The Baa Blacks!" You purchased a sheep number for $2. The sheep raced along a purpose built 'pen', encouraged along by the sheep dog, they jumped over hurdles and the first one over the finish line netted the better $5. They changed the jerseys after each run to make it fairer. What a lot of fun that was! None of my sheep came in but Toby had 1 bet and won $5, tin bum!


















Each team was encouraged to have a stall, this team made and sold toffee apples and sweets.


















And there was a book stall and garage sale items.


















All in all a lot of fun was had on a beautiful Sunday and much needed funds were injected into our club.

It rained and it was cold and very, very muddy!

Welcome to Winter! What a cold and wet and very muddy game this was. The opposition were a lot bigger than us and while we put up a fight, we didn't win the game.

Here is Toby side stepping the opposition.
















This boy wrapped himself round Thomas and didn't let go after he offloaded this ball, the boy just wouldn't let go! He wished he had though after Thomas flung him into the wild blue yonder!

Burnside Rugby Club produces another All Black!

Yesterday the new seasons All Black squad was named to play France and Italy on tour here later this month. Included in this was new cap Wyatt Crockett who has played rugby through the ranks for the same club that the boys belong to - Burnside.


















Here is Thomas and Toby with Loosehead Prop - Wyatt Crockett - at our clubrooms today. The club had a bit of a celebration for Wyatt to show him our support and pride at him being from our club. He has played for the Crusaders for the past 2 seasons, and our Senior Division 1 team before that.

Other club members that have gone on to be All Blacks include Leon MacDonald, Brad Thorn, Shayne Phillpot and Jon Preston.

Congratulations Wyatt! You deserve it.

Team Jackets

Today I handed out the team jackets that I arranged to be made for the boys rugby team. We managed to get 4 sponsors to pay for the jackets, so there was no cost for the boys. They all have their name or nickname printed across the bottom at the back. They were all very pleased to have a warm jacket for the winter ahead.

Pre season rugby upon us again!

Today we had our second pre season game of rugby. We have one more game this Saturday then next weekend we have a grading game, then 9th May is the start of the competition proper.














The boys are playing U14 which is the first year of full rules rugby - lifting in lineouts, 40 minutes each half etc. The grades below introduce a step to full rules each year until U14. For example from U12 you can contest lineouts, from U13 you can push up to 1 metre in scrums. It's all part of keeping the game safe.

Thomas is playing #6, blindside flanker and Toby half back, although today he played 2nd 5 and centre as a couple of boys were away as it's school holidays. He is a bit small to play centre in this grade, but coped very well today.














Toby heading off on the run.















Thomas head down in red second from left in the ruck.















End of game de-brief. That's me, team manager, handing out chocolate bars!

This evening we had our good friends Andy, Kathryn, Lizzie, Tom and Hannah round for dinner. We had a great night. Tom will be playing for his school U14 team in the same competition as the boys, so will be in opposition to us this year. Am sure it will make for some interesting sideline entertainment! He plays centre and at nearly a foot taller than Toby explains my comment about Toby being too small to be a centre!

Made it back from Dunedin in one piece!

Wow what a weekend!

We got away on time at 9am Saturday with 31 boys on the bus and 6 adults.

We stopped at Timaru for half an hour and the boys bought lunch at McDonalds or KFC and had a bit of a run around.

We arrived in Dunedin at 2.30pm where our host families were waiting for the boys to take home for the night.

Toby went with a mate and Thomas with one of his to 2 different families. They were treated to 10 pin bowling and a late night watching the All Blacks beat Australia.

They all met back at the clubrooms at 9.30am Sunday and kickoff for the game was 10.30am.
































While they didn't win their game the boys had an awesome time and played very well as a team which had 8 rep players missing as they were away playing in Blenheim for the weekend.


















The Kaikorai rugby club put on lunch and drinks for us and the most amazing spring weather ever. It was a sunny 24 degrees without the horrible cold wind that we get in Christchurch from the East!

The coach from each team picked the player of the day from the opposing team and Kaikorai picked Thomas. He was presented with one of their club beanies and in exchange presented their Player of the day with one of ours.

We left the club at 1pm and stopped at the worlds steepest street - Baldwin Street. Those that wanted to went for a run up and back and in the heat was no mean feat.
































We headed out of town at 1.30pm and after a couple of stops arrived back in Christchurch at 7pm.

It was an awesome experience for the boys and us adults even managed to have a bit of fun in a city full of uni students, watching the rugby in a fully packed bar and even managing to get the taxi driver to drive us up Baldwin street and back down again at 2am!

Imagine a bus with a boys rugby team on it, now double it!

Tomorrow morning, early, we meet at our rugby clubrooms and our U12 and U13 teams travel to Dunedin (like over 4 hours away) on a rugby exchange with the Kaikorai Rugby club U12 and U13 teams.

Funny how the coach of the U12's and the other organiser helping me are travelling in their own cars and I am on the bus with 34 pubescent boys. Real Funny.

Anyway, I have another father and 2 mothers coming along from my team to help out and there are 5 fathers going from the U12 team, so I wont be alone on the bus, thank goodness!

Once there the boys are all being billeted out by families of the boys they will be playing the following day and the adults are bussed to a motel for free time until 9am Sunday when we are picked up for the trip over the hill to the Rugby grounds for the big games! (Red Bull check-in here!)

It should be a great trip. We hosted their U12 and U13 teams last year and it was a lot of fun. We had 2 great boys stay in our home and a fun time was had by all. This year of course we are the U13's so will see most of the same boys again.

This exchange is a tradition our clubs have had for years and is nice to be a part of it. Of course I have never been on a rugby trip before, for obvious reasons, so have packed my gumboots because I have heard they can get a bit 'messy'.

My 2 wishes for the weekend are:-
1. We find somewhere to watch the All Blacks play the Wallabies and
2. The bus driver likes to drive in silence!!!!!!!!!!

Have a good weekend all.




This is Thomas and Toby with the 2 boys we billeted from the Kaikorai team last year, 2007, when they were all U12's.

Burnside are the 2008 Metro Rugby U13 Champions!

Today we had the U13 Championship final for Canterbury Metro Junior Rugby. Our team made the final after losing only 1 game all season to the team we met in the final today - St Bedes High School.

Went try for try in the first half making the score 14 - 14 at half time.

Just into the second half we kicked a penalty taking the score to 17 - 14. We spent a lot of time up near our try line but just couldnt get it together through their awesome defence. Then they got a blinder of a runaway try that caught us off guard and converted it to make it 17 - 21.

With 2 minutes to go we managed to ground the ball to score a try that went unconverted making it 22 - 21.

With 1 minute to go the game headed down towards their try line and we were just waiting for the refs whistle. In the final moments we conceded a penalty. The ref said it was the last phase of play then it would be full time. Much to our surprise they didn't kick for goal just tapped and went, we defended, got the ball and kicked it out, winning the game 22 - 21.

Wow what an end to a very mucky season weather wise, with up to 6 weeks of no playing near the end of the season due to closed grounds and snow and rain.

The boys all played awesome as a team, was the best spectator game to date and we all left the prizegiving very very happy. (well all except the opposition, but it could easily have been us)









The team after the presentation and speeches.












My boys at home with the silverware!















The plaque for the clubroom wall.












The trophy for the clubrooms cabinet.









That is us for the season now. We have our club prizegiving next Wednesday and then in a fortnights time I take the team on a bus down to Dunedin to the Kaikorai Rugby club on an exchange. The boys will all be billeted out with their players and I will stay in a motel with 3 other parents that have volunteered to accompany the team. They play a game on the Sunday morning, have lunch put on by the hosting club and then we travel by bus back to Christchurch.

After that I can hang up my rugby managers hat for another season and swear I probably won't do it again, until March next year when the urge to get back into it just starts creeping up on me again! Can't give it up really. I guess one day I will have to as can't imagine managing the boys when they are U18 or so! Hell they probably won't want to play if that's the case!

Back on Board and off to the Rugby

Thomas and Toby headed off to the rugby on Saturday 16th August for a special task. They were part of a march past from their rugby club that paraded around the outside of the field before the Canterbury v Auckland match. 5 Junior Reps from each club in Canterbury walked around the field with banners before the big game to bring awareness to Junior rugby in Canterbury.
















You could also show support for your club by going along dressed in club colours and go in the draw for a cash prize for you and your club as the best dressed supporter. I went along as below, much to Al's dismay, but didn't take the prize. Was fun all the same, but even the boys didn't want me near them. I guess not everyone in our family is outgoing and and extrovert! Probably a good thing!

















Canterbury went on to beat Auckland who didn't even look like they wanted to be there. It wasn't an exciting match to watch and owing to the fact it was so cold we left well before the game finished to defrost with a hot drink.


















The empty space on the other side of the field is where they are building a new stand to up the maximum capacity at AMI stadium (formerly known as Jade Stadium, formerly known as Lancaster Park!) and hopefully attract a few games in the rugby world cup to be held in NZ in 2011.

Go the All Blacks!

I put Black and White balloons on the letterbox yesterday to stir up some emotional support from passersby for our All Blacks for last nights test game. Well it obviously worked with us playing like demons possessed beating the Wallabies 39 - 10. I always decorate the tree outside our house with red and black when the Crusaders head into semi finals and finals in the Super 14 too. If I leave it too close to game day people ring or text to ask when I'm going to decorate! And always I get lots of toots of support from passing cars as I'm up the ladder!

Rain, rain and more rain

Oh dear we are kinda getting sick of the rain here. Some very big storms hit NZ this past week, with lots of damage and flooding in the upper South Island and North Island.

A lot of rain for us here in Christchurch too, but no where near the problems they have had throughout the rest of the country.

I have just had to let the boys team know there is no rugby again tomorrow. Save for the game I organised with the other club 2 weeks ago the boys have not had a game in their own competition round for 5 weeks due to the ground being too wet and they will get damaged. We have had a lot of rain and they don't get a chance to dry off so the council don't want them damaged beyond repair. Heck I think it is just about time to consider playing the sport in the summer then! A lot of boys need this physical out at 13years old and to not be allowed to even train on the fields is getting beyond a joke.

We have one more game in the competition round now before the semi finals on the 16th August so will be like starting the season all over again right when we really need to be playing at our utmost best.

Anyways I can't change any of that so no point going on, it is just frustrating all round.

I have been working most days lately hence the lack of updates on the blog, I am just shattered of a night time.

The boys turn 13 on Sunday! Toby has a sleepover birthday party tomorrow night from 5.30pm for 6 boys plus him and Thomas, they leave 11am Sunday and then Thomas has his party from 3.30pm Sunday and will take 8 friends and him and Toby to "Laser Strike" in the city to have the party there and play a couple of games. It is in a huge room in the dark with castles and a maze set up and you run round shooting each other with laser guns while wearing a special vest that lights up. Not my cup of tea, but of course a boys dream!


My oven died last week so we had to go out at the weekend and buy a new one. We chose a Bosch to replace the 16 year old one that must have been put in new when they built this house. Al figured being a German brand it has got to be good. I have so far cooked a roast and yesterday cooked scones for the kids and both most successful so will start on the birthday cakes later today!

We inherited the stove along with the crappy dishwasher when we bought the house, so once that craps out I can get a decent one that doesn't chip all my plates and crack or break all my glasses! But it washes the dishes and beats doing them by hand so better that one than nothing at all!

Just to finish off thought I would publish a photo taken last summer in Nelson, where we go every summer to stay with my sister. We get up there about 3 or 4 times a year but summer is best as they have a lovely pool at their house which the kids just live in and our favourite beach at Rabbit Island, where we all spend ages building sculptures in the sand between swims. My sister Line (Caroline) and I also go out for a flat white coffee just about everywhere and have found our new favourite place on the way to Motueka called 'The play house' nestled on a hillside amongst the bush and the pukekos. Roll on next summer!

A Muddy Game of Rugby

My boys play for the Burnside Rugby Club in the U13 Red team (because it is politically incorrect to call it the A team and the other team the B team!) This is their 7th year of rugby and my 7th year managing their team. They have played 8 games this season proper and won 7 and drawn 1. They top the points table for the U13 division 1 section.

Junior Rugby takes a break over the school holidays, which is good in one way because your team doesn't have to play down on numbers when there are boys away with their families, but on the other hand it makes for a long time between games right at the business end of the season.

The last game before the holidays was cancelled because it snowed, yeah well, a pretty good reason I guess. But that meant that it would be 4 weeks before we got to play again, and that was one of only 3 games before the semi finals on the 16th August.

During the week I organised a game between them and another club with an U13 team at the top of Section 2, with their coach. This gave both teams a bit of a blowing out of the cobwebs before the games next Saturday.

Well after a beautifully fine week, today was pouring with rain! But the game went ahead with 16 of our team of 22 available to play.

We won the game 43 - 10.

It was Thomas's first game back since breaking his arm 11 weeks ago. He played at flanker and showed no signs of having lost any confidence at all. Toby played half back and first five.






















This is Toby and Thomas as they finished the game before climbing into my car that had the back seat and floor draped with plastic tarpaulins!

This afternoon we went to watch our club's Division One Senior team take on Linwood in am all out in-it-to-win-to-get-into-the-semis game. The score was tied at 15 - 15 at half time and Burnside went on to win the game 18 - 15. It was the best game I have seen them play for a while and the best final 7 minutes of any game I've seen them play.




















Thomas and Toby are ball boys for all the Senior Home games, rain, hail or shine! ( and in one case this season snow!)

What's up on Wednesday?

Today I did a lot of catchup work for the boys rugby team I manage, sending out the newsletter via email and updating the stats sheets I keep for the team.

At 2.30 I picked Katie up and took her to the orthodontist and he told her she can get her braces off next week. So we have an appointment next Friday which is so exciting for her as they have been on nearly 2 years!

Toby had tennis lessons this afternoon and Thomas collated the information on his Science Fair experiment he did at lunch time at school on left and right handed boys. He laid out a trail of simple tests in the playground and timed 4 left handers and 4 right handers completing them. It seems from his findings right handers had the upper hand in all tasks - much to his left handed disgust! Toby's experiment is being done tomorrow night at home. He is testing the flammability of childrens clothing. Dad is supervising that one - in the garage!

Tonight Katie and I went to a final meeting at her school for the 55 girls going to World Youth Day in Sydney in 31 days time. They are all getting very excited and apprehensive at the same time. Word is there will be close to 500,000 at the mass on Sunday 20th July at Randwick Racecourse. Wow! They have also had it confirmed they are staying at a College in Chatswood in North Sydney, but the first 2 nights they stay at the Olympic Stadium. It's all falling into place and just marking off the days now.