Photo courtesy of Steven Hughes of www.imagepics.co.uk

At the send off dinner for the England team at the 02 Dome before the 2007 Rugby World Cup, Rhino donated a Rebel 3 scrum machine for the charity auction at the event. It was bought by Charles Henderson and donated to Barnet Elizabethan mini rugby section. In addition to the gift of the machine, England rugby kindly offered a coaching session by a member of the World Cup squad and the boys at Barnet were very excited recently to be put through their paces on the machine by Bristol, England and Lions hooker Mark Regan.

The captain of the Lords and Commons Rugby XV, Lord Addington, Liberal Democrat spokesman on sport in the House of Lords, came to the Rhino stand at the highly successful two day Rugby Expo at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre on November 18th to make the prize draw for a Rhino Lions Official Training ball signed by the Lions management and coaching team. Over 100 entries were received by email and business card drop and the winner was Simon Cooper, President of Rugby League Deutschland, who had attended the exhibition on the first day. Lord Addington is an experienced prop with a wealth of rugby experience and is no stranger to Rhino's market leading scrummaging machines.

Reg Clark, Rhino's Chief Executive, was voted Rugby Business Person of the Year at the inaugural Rugby Business Awards dinner at the Sheraton Park Lane Hotel in London on November 17th. The dinner and awards were organised by marketing agency ENS in conjunction with the highly successful two day Rugby Expo event at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre. Clark's nomination was endorsed and supported by a significant number of prominent figures in the game and the award announcement occasioned a lively celebration on the Rhino table at the event. The awards panel was chaired by former New Zealand captain Sean Fitzpatrick and the ceremony compared by former England and Lions lock Martin Bayfield. The award was presented by Wasps and former France captain Raphael Ibanez and Bristol and former England and Lions hooker Mark Regan.

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".

Rhino Launches Official Ball at Lions Press Conference

Pictured above with the Rhino Lions ball are Lions Tour Manager
Gerald Davies, Robert Howley, Sean Edwards and Rhino CEO Reg Clark.

Rhino Rugby yesterday launched the Official Training Ball of the British & Irish Lions Tour to South Africa 2009. At the Press Conference held at the HSBC offices in Dublin to name Ian McGeechan’s coaching team of Warren Gatland, Robert Howley and Sean Edwards, Rhino CEO Reg Clark unveiled the striking new ‘celtic’ style designs based on the shape of a Lions claw. Rhino will have a full range of Lions ball products on offer from November. In addition to being the Official Training Ball Supplier for the tour, Rhino are also supplying their market-leading scrummaging machines and contact and training equipment to the Lions.

England Team Manager Martin Johnson makes the Rhino England Draw at Rugby House, Twickenham with Reg Clark, CEO of Rhino Rugby.

Bishop Vesey’s Grammar School in Sutton Coldfield were picked out of the hat today by England Team Manager Martin Johnson in Rugby House Twickenham to win the Rhino England Draw prize of two places at the England training session at Penny Hill Park on October 28th. Bishop Vesey’s Head of Rugby Zac Feaunati, former Samoa and Bath No 8, was “stoked” at the news of the win and is looking forward to selecting two of his pupils to take up the prize. Bishop Vesey’s have recently taken delivery of a considerable amount of Rhino equipment and thus qualified for our top 50 clients list in England to enter the draw. More Rhino prize draws will follow during the season – watch this space.

Neil Back and Reg Clark hold the winning ticket
for Broughton Park with Mark Fletcher

England World Cup winner, Lions legend and Leeds Carnegie coach Neil Back has drawn North 2 West club Broughton Park as the winner of the Rhino Rugby - Pitchero prize draw.

Pitchero, the innovative new social networking platform for sports clubs, presented a Rhino World Cup match ball to the first 50 clubs who had 20 registered members on their Pitchero website and the first 40 clubs to have 50 members were entered into the draw for £1,000 worth of Rhino ground equipment.

The draw took place at the Leeds Rugby clubhouse shared by Leeds Carnegie and the Leeds Rhinos and was attended by England, Lions and Great Britain rugby league hero John Bentley, who is currently Community Marketing Manager for the combined operation, Reg Clark, Chief Executive of Rhino Rugby and Mark Fletcher of Pitchero.

John Bentley with Rhino Hit Shield

The Inaugural Rhino International Rugby Festival at Browns Sports & Leisure Club in the Algarve was held on the weekend of October 4th and 5th and was a resounding success.

Taking its lead from the O2 Scrum on the Beach events held in Trafalgar Square and other venues around England in the summer, the centrepiece was a tournament held on the Browns purpose built permanent beach rugby facility in which local club Vilamoura triumphed 5-3 over the touring Kew Occasionals side in the final. Amongst a number of coaching events and clinics was a SCRUMSMART event focussing on scrummaging technique for beginners which used the Rhino Dictator machine which again is a permanent training feature for the many sides who visit Browns for warm weather training. This has in the past included the national squads of England, Australia and Ireland and a great many professional clubs from Europe and further afield. The machine itself is something of a collectors piece, being the one used in France by England to hone their scrummaging techniques to such a high level in sweeping aside Australia and France on their way to the 2007 Rugby World Cup final. Rhino have had a partnership with Browns to supply their contact and training equipment for some time, and both parties are keen to make this Festival an annual event, hopefully next year involving both union and league codes.

Rhino Pure Rugby, the brand launched recently by Rhino Rugby in collaboration with UK merchandising specialists Trimerchandise, has secured an Official Supplier contract with the to supply playing kit and apparel to the Swiss national rugby sides.

The FSR joins English Premiership club Northampton Saints and Magners League and Heinken Cup contender Edinburgh in adopting the Rhino Pure Rugby brand for the 2008-9 season.

Rhino Rugby itself has been appointed Official Supplier of training equipment to the British & Irish Lions tour to South Africa in 2009 and was an Official Partner and Supplier to the recent IRB U-20 Junior World Championship in Wales. It recently also added London Wasps to its roster of Official Supplier deals alongside longstanding relationships with England, Wales, Bath and the Cardiff Blues. The West London based company was subject to a management buy-in led by new England Team Manager Martin Johnson in late 2006.

FSR commercial consultant Alain Winterhalter comments 'Rhino is one of the great global rugby brands and we are delighted to be working with them’.

Rhino Pure Rugby head of sales Jason Critchley was equally pleased to land another major contract : 'we are determined to add national rugby federations to our portofolio of contracts and are very happy to have the FSR as our first of this kind. They will not be the last.’

Contact:
Jason Critchley on +44 7725 244022
or Reg Clark on + 44 208 995 5965.