Manawatū Rugby's Rippa World Cup featured 44 teams from 17 schools.
Manawatū Rugby's Rippa World Cup featured 44 teams from 17 schools.
Local primary and intermediate school pupils took part in Manawatū Rugby’s Rippa World Cup.
On Friday, October 20 at Bill Brown Park, 44 teams from 17 schools, including Manawatū, Tararua, and Rangitikei, entered teams.
The competition style was rippa, the form of rugby tamariki aged under 7 play in theManawatū junior club competition.
Manawatū Rugby game development and operations manager Shaun Eade says the competition coincided with the Men’s Rugby World Cup to encourage wider participation in rugby.
“Each team was assigned a 2023 Rugby World Cup country and was encouraged to dress up in outfits that represented that country.”
The tournament was split into two grades, year 5-6 and year 7-8.
The tournament was split into two grades- years 5 and 6, and years 7 and 8.
Manawatū Rugby ran the tournament for girls last year to coincide with the Women’s Rugby World Cup. After a strong turnout this year, Manawatū Rugby were making the Rippa World Cup an annual event, says Shaun.
“It was great to see so many teams take part, as the key purpose of the tournament was to encourage participation and introduce new kids to rugby. For many of these kids, it would have been the first Rippa tournament that they have played in, so hopefully they enjoyed it so much that they’ll now register to play rippa or rugby for a club next season.”
