Monthly Archives: November 2008

By popular consent the two leading scrummaging gurus in world rugby are Mike Cron, current New Zealand scrum coach, in the Southern Hemisphere, and Phil Keith-Roach, former England scrum coach and Rhino founder and consultant, in the Northern Hemisphere. Remarkably, the two men had never met, and as Rhino is always committed to friendly interchange and co-operation in respect of promoting safe and effective fully contested scrummaging as an integral feature of the rugby union game, we took the opportunity of hosting a dinner for the two leading proponents of these arts during the All Blacks stay in London prior to their game with England. What followed was a tour d’horizon of historical and recent developments in respect of scrummaging laws and techniques, which if recorded would have been a best selling definitive statement – in the event, it was wasted on Rhino CEO and former fly half Reg Clark. As usual with Phil, the evening featured live scrummaging action, to the bemusment of other diners in the newly opened (and highly recommended) Côte restaurant in Kensington. Not quite on a par with the famous meeting between Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg in Copenhagen in 1941, but in terms of the world of scrummaging, not far off!

Two pupils from Bishop Vesey's Grammar School in Sutton Coldfield were the lucky winners of the Rhino Prize Draw which gave them places on the England Rugby Open Day at Penny Hill Park on October 28th. The pupils Will Sharpe and Will Slatterly were taken to the session by their Head of Rugby, Zac Feaunati the former London Irish, Bath and Samoa No 8. The boys learned about the England set up and training regimes and were able to spend time with the England players. "It was a great day for the boys" said Zac Feaunati, "they were able to get a good idea of the life of a professional rugby player and to meet with their heroes. We are very grateful to Rhino for the opportunity".