Brunei boring? Not to Kiwi couple teaching locals the joys of rugby

Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque in Brunei. Photo / Jim Eagles

Brunei is sometimes called the most boring place on earth but it suits Kiwi couple Ben Bourne and Kim Geddes, not least because of their devotion to rugby.

There may be no bars or nightclubs, no alcohol, only three shopping malls and three picture theatres, but they love the place and have lived there for eight years.

Mr Bourne is the coach of the Brunei national rugby team and in charge of rugby development in the tiny Southeast Asian state and Ms Geddes partner teaches English at a boys secondary school, runs rugby tournaments and has even started a girls' touch rugby team.

Mr Bourne says living in Brunei is "pretty awesome."

"I have a Mormon background, so the non-drinking, non-partying thing sort of suits me. The food is great, the food is cheap and it is very similar to island food.

"The people are generous, all out, and it's a bit like living in the islands."

It takes an hour from the northern tip of the country to the southern tip, and it being an oil exporter, it costs $20 to fill up the car.

Samoan-born Mr Bourne immigrated to Christchurch with his parents then they moved to Auckland.

He switched from league to rugby when he was at school and ended up playing centre in the Otahuhu College First XV.

He played socially after that for Telecom, where he worked in the faults division.

When Ms Geddes signed up for a teaching job in Brunei in 2006, he accompanied her, playing rugby with the Brunei police before doing a coaching course in Singapore.

And the local rugby union recommended him to the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports for the job.

"All the coaches in Brunei for various sports get paid by the Government, unlike back home where the union alone pays for them," says Mr Bourne. "Here the coaches work for the Government."

In a brief history of Brunei rugby, he says it began in the 1960s and 1970s but went into abeyance until a group of teachers set out to revive it 2005.

"They got a committee together and registered it with the Government, so the union became official in 2005."

The Brunei union is affiliated to the Asian Rugby Football Union but is not a member of the International Rugby Board so the national team is not ranked with the IRB.

Mr Bourne says the Asian Rugby Football Union organised matches with teams of similar calibre in the region, which have been Laos, Cambodia and Indonesia.

"We're looking at not even maybe a reserve level in New Zealand - senior men's."

The players are not professionals. Their day jobs include teachers, bankers, police officers, soldiers and government officials.

Until this year the Brunei national team played overseas only once a year. But this year's pace has stepped up.

"We've been away twice already, to Cambodia in June and Malaysia in August and there are more tournaments lined up for the rest of the year so the boys are still in training."

In Cambodia they lost their games; in Malaysia they won one.

Mr Bourne says as soon as people see him they know he plays rugby. Plenty of them know about the All Blacks and some kids told he looked like Ma'a Nonu.

Ms Geddes says there are about 300 foreign teachers contracted to teach English at Brunei schools.

She began organising the rugby at her school and recently ran an under-18s tournament.

She said there were now quite a few girls' touch team in Brunei "and the union is now at having women's contact rugby."

Two Sundays ago, there was an exhibition of the first full-contact rugby for women at a men's tournament.

When girls are exercising and playing sports, they generally don't wear their headscarves, she said.

"Our life revolves around rugby," she said. "I've got more rugby in my life here than I did in New Zealand."