Otago Rugby Union eNewsletter

Editorial

Country Day!!! Join us this King’s Birthday weekend, Saturday 1 June, at the Toko Rugby Football Club, Milton Domain, for the much-anticipated 2024 Country Day! Country Day is a celebration of the best of grassroots rugby, reflecting the community and sporting spirits that make rugby so special to many of our region's communities. One of the key highlights will be the fiercely contested Topp Cup match between the Southern and Central Premier Teams. This historic fixture, dating back to 1913, will see Central defending the Cup they won last year in Alexandra. A big shout out to our Country Day Sponsor Property Brokers.

We've got some fresh blood joining our NPC Coaching team in 2024. Scroll down below to see who will be joining us!

Winner announced!!! Congratulations to our May Volunteer of the Month winner, Cherie Ford from Alhambra Union RFC. A heartfelt thank you goes out to all our nominees for everything you contribute to the game and our community.

Best of luck to Otago referee James Doleman who is a finalist for this year's Strawberry Official of the Year in the 2024 Otago Sports Awards! James was an assistant referee for the 2023 Rugby World Cup, refereed a Six Nations fixture, and continued to officiate NPC and Super Rugby Matches.

Final days!!! Otago Rugby will be holding an open training session for any players who are interested in representing the Otago Men's U19's representative team this year. This session will be held at Logan Park 6 between 6.00-7.30 pm on Wednesday 5th June. See article below for more details and how to register.

2024 Season Memberships are now ONSALE!!! In 2024 all members will receive a $10 voucher per membership to shout themselves some food or a bevy on us! To sign up you can find our Membership Sign Up Form and information booklet HERE

The 2024 NPC & FPC Draws are out! Scroll down to check out our Games, or check out the full Draws here… FULL NPC DRAW, FULL FPC DRAW.

Scroll down for more rugby news and announcements like development opportunities, weekly happenings, rugby courses and more…

ODT Interesting Reads!

Here are the new Otago coaching appointments for the 2024 Bunnings Warehouse NPC season!

Lachlan McCaffrey has been appointed as Otago NPC Assistant Coach (Defence Coach Specialist) for 2024. McCaffrey will relocate to Dunedin from Canberra where he is currently working as a consultant for EY and Head Coach of the Gungahlin Eagles. He has previous been with the Austin Gilgronis team in the MLR where he was responsible for their defence, collision and breakdown. Before moving to coaching McCaffrey also played to a high level, playing for the Australian U20’s, Super Rugby for the Waratahs, Force and the Brumbies, as well as playing in Japan, the UK and in the MLR in the USA.

In addition, Kane Jury has been appointed as Otago NPC Backs & Skills Coach for 2024. Jury is a friendly and familiar face to many within the Otago and Highlanders rugby circle. He has a wide range of coaching experience, including, Skills Coach with the NPC team and Highlanders, Head Coach of the Otago Spirit, Otago Men’s 7s Head Coach and New Zealand Secondary Schools Head Coach.

Both McCaffrey and Jury will join with existing coaches Tom Donnelly (Head Coach) and Ryan Bambry (Assistant Coach) to complete the coaching team for this NPC season.

As a part of his existing role at Otago Rugby as Regional Development Coach, Will Henry will also be assisting the NPC team with scrum support.

The Bunnings Warehouse NPC kicks off from Friday 9 August! The countdown is on!

COBB & CO OCR VOLUNTEER OF THE MONTH - WINNER!!!

Cherie Ford – Alhambra-Union Junior RFC

“Would love to nominate Cherie Ford of Alhambra-Union Junior Rugby Club. She has worked tirelessly in the background getting our teams registered and sorted, kitted them out in new hoodies and individually initialed all of our 100+ new beanies provided by her husband’s business. She’s an absolute rockstar while being a full time teacher and Mum to two boys of her own! We’d be lost without her.”

Congratulations Cherie, you have scored yourself a $100 Cobb & Co. Dunedin meal voucher!

All other nominees, Mike & Ezra Blair, Brian Greer and Carla Paranihi have scored themselves a $50 Cobb & Co meal voucher.

All finalists for each Volunteer of the Month this year will be invited to a special volunteer thank you event ahead of the All Blacks vs England test match in July 2024!

Thank you to all our volunteers for the work that you do for our rugby community week in, week out. We couldn't do it without you all.

This May, Dan Carter is asking rugby players and fans of all ages and abilities across the country to join the Beat Dan Carter challenge, from 3-17 June. It’s all for an amazing cause too - helping kids in the Pacific get access to safe, clean water.

With just one ball - one tee - one hour - DC kicked 273 goals. Can you or your team Beat Dan Carter? Give it a good go for a great cause and the love of rugby.

Sign up and you could win Dan Carter at your club, school or backyard. Three in-person DC coaching sessions to be won anywhere in Aotearoa, along with DC kicking tees, signed rugby balls, and other prizes up for grabs.

Everything you need to know is at beatdancarter.com.

Otago Rugby will be holding an open training session for any players who are interested in representing the Otago Men's U19's representative team this year.

This session will be held at Logan Park 6 between 6.00-7.30 pm on Wednesday 5th June. Boys can use the changing facilities under Hill City Athletics Club (next to Logan Park 6) to get changed and keep their gear.

Please still register and come along if you are injured. If you cannot make the session for whatever reason or have any other queries, please email Isaac Smith at isaac.smith@orfu.co.nz.