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Historic first match in Thailand

Published on July 19, 2005

[RUGBY UNION] Thailand has stolen the march on the rest of the world in trialling a new international competition in rugby. Called 80-80 rugby or welterweight rugby, it is full 15-a-side contact rugby played under the existing Inter-national Rugby Board Laws of the Game for U19 rugby.

The only difference is that all players cannot weigh more than 85kg.

Thailand is hosting the world’s first international tournament from August 6-14 in Phuket.

Auckland Rugby Union, New South Wales Union and Japan Rugby Football Union will compete with Thailand. The tour budget for Auckland may be their biggest financial commitment other than the Super 12s, so they are serious.

These unions represent the “powerhouses” of southern hemisphere rugby and, of course, Japan is the leading rugby nation in Asia, being the only one to have made a World Cup. It should prove to be one of the most competitive and closely fought rugby competitions between Asian unions and southern hemisphere unions ever.

The 80-80 rugby is not a variation of rugby, like sevens, 10s or the beach version, but the full 15-a-side game where selection is based not on age but on one simple criteria – weight.

With this weight grade, Asian teams can feasibly end up as world champions because it will be a competition based on individual skills, teamwork and technique only, without the domination of physical power that can be generated by some of the physically bigger peoples such as Fijians and South Africans.

Weight grade rugby is not new to Australia and New Zealand, with many children developing an interest in rugby through weight grade school competitions.

However, the modern driver of the competition is founded in New Zealand where there was a need to find a form of competition where the lighter players were not being overpowered by the much more “physical” style of rugby played by the physically heavier Pacific Island people.

Now the game is played extensively in New Zealand – Auckland region has about 200 clubs playing the game – and it is starting in Australia.

The concept is particularly appealing to Asian and African countries because these unions can now compete. Thailand recognised this and has taken a valuable and enviable initiative, now grabbing the lead over every other union in the world.

This year is a pilot tournament, but so seriously is the International Rugby Board looking at the prospects of the competition, the IRB are sending both technical development managers and media representatives to study and record the tournament. Filming of the event will be seen world-wide on the IRB’s weekly “Total Rugby” program.

Also making the effort to attend, despite their demanding schedules, will be the Chairman of the Austra-lian Rugby Union, Dilip Kumar, and the Chairman of Auckland Rugby Union, Ken Baguley.

At first there was some opposition to the concept, people considering it was yet another variation of the game and not wanting to develop a competition that might detract from the Rugby World Cup.

However, the concept is now seen as a means to involve more people in rugby and to assist in further internationalising the game. Imagine the interest if Thailand were to end up in the top four nations in the world, and with weight grade, there is no reason why that could not be.


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