RHINO CONTINUES TO BACK GRASSROOTS TOURNAMENT IN POLAND

On August 17th for the third consecutive year Rhino sponsored the remarkable Piotrowice Nyskie International Rugby Festival in Poland. The event, run by expatriate Englishman Jim Parton and his Polish wife Anna in the grounds of their Schloss in Silesia on the Polish-Czech border was shortlisted alongside the English Premiership Final and the Las Vegas Sevens for the Rugby Event of the Year Award at Rugby Expo 2012 at Twickenham - a fine gesture on the part of the selection panel to the importance of supporting the grassroots game in developing rugby countries. We once more sponsored the Womens Sevens part of the tournament – won in 2011 by the Romanian national side and in 2012 by the Czech Republic. This year it was dominated by Czech teams with the invitation side the ‘Lazybugs’, consisting of many of the previous year’s winning national side, defeating the Petrowice club side 43-10 in the final of the main competition to take the Rhino Rugby Trophy. Judging from the ladybird motif on their kit it’s tempting to suggest something has been lost in translation on the name front, but either way heartiest congratulations to them. In the Plate Final Ricany beat Tatra 29-7, and in the Shield final Slavia Prague defeated local Polish team Wroclaw 30-0 to give all the top 5 slots in the tournament to Czech sides. In the Bowl Final visiting UK side Hackney defeated the crowd favourites the Warsaw Frogs 36-5. The Frogs had the compensation of winning the Most Social Team prize, sponsored by our fellow England Rugby Sponsor Greene King, who also generously supplied copious amounts of IPA to the tournament which went down extremely well with supporters and players. This is an event which is now on the verge of cult status and looks set to go from strength to strength.

The Lazybugs and Petrowice teams before the final.

Reg Clark sporting a Rhino Union Jacket presents the Rhino Rugby Trophy to the Lazybugs team at the tournament awards ceremony.