The International Rugby Board 2011 Rugby World Cup is taking place in New Zealand. The Cayman Islands may not be participating but will be represented by the head of the sport here.
Cayman Rugby Football Union President Derek Haines is making the trek at the start of October. Family members are expected to join Haines on the exhausting journey.
Mr. Haines spoke about the travel arrangements.
“My wife Helen will be travelling with me and we get to New Zealand on 6 October via Los Angeles and Fiji,” Mr. Haines said. “So that’s about 20 hours of flying plus we lose a day from the date line. My son Chris will be joining us from London. From there we leave for Cayman after the final.”
Mr. Haines is expected to be one of about 100,000 visitors to the competition, the largest sporting event ever held in New Zealand. Matches will run from 10 September until 22 October.
This year’s event sees 20 countries taking part in Argentina, Australia, Canada, England, Fiji, France, Georgia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Namibia, New Zealand, Romania, Russia, Samoa, Scotland, South Africa, Tonga, United States and Wales.
Haines states a number of nations can give the host country a challenge.
“New Zealand must be the favourites but Australia, current champions South Africa and England will be close contenders. You can also never write off the French; remember they defeated the All Blacks in the quarter-finals last time.
“I’m expecting great rugby and a fantastic atmosphere if previous World Cups are anything to go by. Also meeting supporters from other countries and cultures who have a common love of the game is wonderful and provides opportunities to enlighten them on what happens here.”
News of Mr. Haines’ journey to the World Cup comes after the national Under-19 boys’ team claimed the Caribbean Championships for the third time in four years this summer. Mr. Haines states that success is indicative of the strides made in Cayman rugby.
“We just keep going from strength to strength. The highlight of the year has to be regaining the U19 regional championships. However our younger teams played very well in the Bahamas and our sevens squad is improving all the time. I am looking forward to another terrific year for Cayman rugby.” Interestingly Cayman will not have any officials involved with the staging of the 2011 World Cup games. However Mr. Haines is quick to note that the local rugby union will be streaming games on its website. “We will not be providing officials at this event but we will have a good number of us supporting. “We will have all games on a tape delay because of the hours. Be sure to watch caycompass.com and caymanrugby.com for further details.”
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