Monthly Archives: August 2009

Tim Francis, the inventor of the world’s first scrummaging machine, the Rhino Powerhouse, and founder of Rhino Rugby who is retired and spending part of his time in Northern Cyprus, contacted us some time ago to ask for assistance for the newly formed local team there, the Cyprus Pumas. Rhino accordingly donated some contact and training equipment last season to help the Pumas to win the inaugural Turkish Rugby League, and this season we provided them with a scrum machine which was kindly bought for the club by local solicitors Naomi Mehmet & Partners and recently delivered. Clare Morley, Secretary of the Pumas commented: “we are very grateful to Tim for introducing us to the company he founded and to Rhino for their continued support. We believe this machine will greatly assist our efforts to grow our club and consolidate our position as Turkish champions”. New Pumas coach, Keith Ellor said: “The new scrum machine will be invaluable to help the forwards improve their scrummaging techniques, especially important as we expect a number of touring teams from the UK this season.”

See www.cypruspumas.com for further details.

A Rhino Premiersled machine recently delivered to the Kazakhstan RFU was put into immediate use at a 3 hour Scrum Clinic for the Kazakhstan women’s team organised by Asian RFU Development Manager for Central Asia, Luke O’Callaghan. Former Pumas Prop Fernando Diaz Alberdi, a 1999 Rugby World Cup veteran, gave his time and expert advice to support the session. The session was part of a development plan leading up to the women’s RWC qualifiers in Singapore in November.

Valeriy Popov, head coach of the women's team said "We are delighted that someone with Fernando's expertise and experience was available to help us out. We are also very grateful to our sponsors, Nigel Croft at Datoba, Roger Holland at CBRE Richard Ellis and all the team at DHL, for making this possible. We are very grateful also to Rhino for providing the first ever scrum machine in Central Asia".

Luke O'Callaghan was delighted with the clinic, "The girls really enjoyed getting to grips with the Rhino scrum machine, which  is a good example of the small improvements we are making in this part of the world and which is sure to have a lasting effect on Kazakhstani players who have the potential to dominate Asian forward play”.