22-04-12 - Craig Clare

Hey guys,

How’s things? Well the rugby season is finally here and the Super 15 is fully underway. The Highlanders and Chiefs are in 1^st and 2^nd positions in the New Zealand conference respectively after the first few rounds, which is promising for the Manawatu Turbos as both these teams have several players from our region.

Back here in the Manawatu, preseason games are now over and the Manawatu Club Competition is starting this Saturday 24^th of March, so I hope to see you all out there supporting your local clubs.

The Manawatu Turbos’ extended training squad has also started up with the boys training hard for the last 3 weeks under Scott “Nails” Pinfold instruction. Scotty is former Turbos trainer Paul Hammerson’s son and is in his 2^nd year as Turbos trainer - so let’s hope he continues on his strong work from the first year.

On a grassroots level, Reece Robinson and I have been going around selected schools in Palmerston North, Feilding and Bulls teaching the skills and rules of Rippa rugby to youngsters in the region. We hope that those who have joined in already have enjoyed playing Rippa and we hope to have as many schools as possible entering our local Manawatu Rippa Rugby Tournaments held over the 2^nd of April – 4^thof April. There are three cups up for grabs, so kids ask your teachers to get a team together and get involved!

I’ve personally had the summer off rugby and had a good break rehabilitating the body and have just started playing preseason games for my local club side Feilding Yellows. We are just coming back from a week tour on the Gold Coast of Australia, where we won both games in what was a very positive trip for the club. It will hopefully give us a bit of confidence coming into our first competition game this week against defending champs Varsity.

Hope all is well,

Craig Clare