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Luciano Orquera of Aironi created a new goalkicking record in their pre-Christmas Italian derby game against Treviso. Aironi ran out 27-13 winners at the Stadio Zaffanella with Orquera scoring all the points with 9 successful penalty kicks at goal out of 9 attempts.

This is the highest number of penalty goals by one player in a game in the 11 year history of the RaboDirect PRO12 competition.  Orquera joins exalted company in his achievement moreover – Diego  Dominguez  kicked 9 penalties  out of 9   for Stade Francais in the 2001 Heineken Cup Final, as did Thierry Lacroix for Perpignan in the same competition, both against Leicester. Simon Mannix of Gloucester achieved the same feat in the Premiership in 2000 as has Andrew Mehrtens twice at test level.  Mention must also be given of Chris  Paterson's  achievement in kicking 8 penalties and 2 conversions out of 10 attempts in September 2009.

Orquera’s achievement further boosts the very strong goalkicking statistics across the board so far this season in the RaboDirect PRO12 with the new Rhino Vortex Elite ball.  Currently the Rhino Golden Boot Award table is headed by Leinster duo Fergus McFadden and Jonathan Sexton with 95.24% and 86.96% success rate respectively. They are followed by Ronan O’Gara of Munster with 84.21%, Rhys Priestland of Scarlets with 83.33% , Duncan Weir of Glasgow with 82.46% and Greig Laidlaw of Edinburgh with 80.36%.  Orquera’s achievement has helped his move into seventh place with 79.17%. Rhino is absolutely delighted with these statistics and with the universally positive response the Vortex Elite ball has received generally.

Luciano Orquera of Aironi:
“Sono stato contentissimo di realizzare 9 calci su 9 durante il derby contro Treviso prima di Natale perché ci ha permesso di centrare una vittoria importante. Ho scoperto solo il giorno dopo di aver realizzato un nuovo record assoluto nella storia del RaboDirect PRO12. Il nuovo pallone Rhino Vortex mi ha permesso di esprimermi al meglio, anche in condizioni meteo non ottimali. E’ un piacere da calciare”.

"I was delighted toscore 9 out of 9 penalty kicks during the derby game against Treviso before Christmas because it meant achieving an important win. I only found out the day after the game that I had made a new kicking record in the RaboDirect PRO12. The new Rhino Vortex allowed me to be at my best, even in poor weather conditions. It is a pleasure to kick".

Earlier this year Rhino was put in touch with Teheran RFC by former Cambridge University captain and current Commercial Manager Stewart Eru and we were delighted to be able to supply the club with some second hand equipment, including contact equipment formerly used by the England squad. President Charles Wyley together with coach Idin Norashemi have been instrumental in developing the game in Iran at grass roots level at a time of falling expatriate numbers and TRFC competed once more in the recent Dubai Sevens International Social competition, with their achievements being highlighted in the tournament programme. Unfortunately, their efforts have been put on hold during the recent political upheavals – particularly as there is no current access to their training ground and equipment store in the British Embassy compound in Teheran. We congratulate Charles and his members for their pioneering efforts and wish them well in the current difficult circumstances facing the club.

Teheran RFC members with their Rhino equipment.

Rhino once more sponsored the Oku Memorial Trophy tournament played at Iffley Road Oxford on Saturday December 3rd. The event is played to honour the memory of Ambassador Katsuhiko Oku, a founder of London Japanese RFC who was tragically killed whilst on diplomatic duty in Iraq in 2003. The tournament was won by the Kew Occasionals who defeated Hertford College in the final. Ambassador Oku became the first Japanese national to play for the Blues XV at Oxford and become a member of Vincent’s the prestigious university sportsman’s club. He was also very active as a member of the JRFU International Committee in promoting Japan’s ambitions to host the Rugby World Cup. The trophy was presented by Lynn Evans, RFU staff coach who was OURFC’s coach in the early 80’s when Oku played for the Blues XV.

You can download a copy of the Oku Trophy programme here

Lynn Evans presents the Oku Trophy to Kew Occasionals joint captains Tom Clark and Tom Quayle after their 50—7 victory over Hertford College, with sponsor Rhino Rugby’s CEO Reg Clark, Hertford captain Andrew Gosling and OURFC General Manager Tim Stevens who refereed the final.

Rhino’s first venture into sponsoring  a ‘branded’ sevens side – in the International Open competition of the Dubai Sevens from December 1^st to 3^rd – turned out to be a somewhat unexpected success.  The ‘Move One Rhinos’, jointly sponsored by the Dubai-headquartered international logistics company Move One and by Sterling Financial Printers in addition to ourselves, proved to be the ‘dark horses’ of this particular tournament in reaching in the final.   Captained and managed by Matt Gupta, a former work experience intern with Rhino, The Rhinos beat sides from Ireland, France, Nigeria and the UAE to reach the final where they went down to pre-tournament favourites the French  ‘Reservoir Group Pyrenees 7s’. They at least had the pleasure of watching England take revenge for them later that same day, beating France 29-12 in the main IRB Sevens Series tournament.   Whilst we have no plans to emulate some of our teamwear rival companies in running sides on the semi-pro sevens circuit, we are delighted at the success of Matt’s squad and there is no doubt that The Rhinos will be re-appearing again in future.

Richie Gray, inventor of the revolutionary Rhino Collision King rucking machine yesterday won the coveted Technical Innovation Award at the Rugby Expo Awards Dinner at Twickenham.

Former England scrum half Peter Richards presented the award to a delighted Gray, who thanked all at Rhino for the support he had received since meeting Rhino CEO Reg Clark at Martin Johnson’s introduction in April this year.

Having commenced production in June, the machine was already in use by Wales, England, Scotland and Georgia at the Rugby World Cup and is also already being manufactured under licence in the US and New Zealand.

Rhino Rugby is an Official Supplier at the Rugby Expo to be held at Twickenham. The latter day is club open day so please come and visit us at Stand B1. In addition to our mainstream equipment business, staff from Rhino Teamwear and from our fashion brand RhinoGB will be exhibiting alongside us, and Rhino-Turf, our artificial playing surface brand, will be providing the interactive zone feature on day two.

We look forward very much to seeing you there.

Visit Rhino Rugby at Rugby Expo Stand B1
23-24 NOVEMBER TWICKENHAM

Rhino Rugby has been shortlisted for two separate awards at Rugby Expo’s Rugby Awards Dinner next week.

The company’s long track record of low profile but effective CSR activity through support of charities and programmes such as SCRUMSMART, the not for profit campaign to promote safe and effective fully contested scrummaging in rugby union (which spawned the IRB/RFU sponsored measurement of forces in scrummaging project at Bath University, amongst other things), coupled with our higher profile sponsorship of the British & Irish Lions, England and Wales and a number of professional clubs in both codes, has been recognised by nomination for the Sponsor of the Year Award.

Richie Gray’s Rhino Collision King, described by forward coaching guru Jim Telfer as ‘one of the biggest breakthroughs in rugby training equipment in recent years’ has additionally been nominated for the Technical Innovation Award.

The above nominations follow on from CEO Reg Clark’s winning the Rugby Business Person of the Year award at the 2008 Expo and election amongst the 20 Most Influential persons in world rugby at the 2010 Expo.

We are extremely proud of both nominations this year and will keep our fingers crossed for further success!

See Rhino Rugby at the Rugby Expo 2011 November 23 - 24
Visit us on stand B1

UPDATE: Rhino Rugby and Richie Grey won the Technical Innovation award for The Collision King

RaboDirect Pro12 - Rhino Vortex Elite Rugby Ball

Reg Clark and Karl Hogan with the newly minted RaboDirect PRO12 trophy at the Aviva Stadium

The recent Leinster vs Munster game in the RaboDirect PRO12 - billed as 'Fever at the Aviva 2' and attended by close to 50,000 fans - developed into a goal kicking contest between Ireland's leading fly halves - Johnny Sexton for Leinster and Ronan O'Gara for Munster, who between them achieved a remarkable strike rate of 13 out of 14 successful kicks at goal from a wide variety of angles and distances.

This was extremely gratifying to Rhino CEO Reg Clark and Irish Sales Agent Karl Hogan, attending the event as guests of Celtic Rugby, in the Rhino Vortex Elite's first season as Official Ball of the competition.

The reception of players and coaches to the new ball has been overwhelming positive - far be it for us to compare that with ball controversies in other recent high profile rugby tournaments!

Rhino Rugby today signed a breakthrough distribution agreement with Singapore based Centaurs Group to cover the Asian markets.

Rhino Rugby Asia will be administered by Centaurs and will promote the brands market leading contact and training equipment together with balls, teamwear and other Rhino products across the region from India to mainland China, including such rugby hot spots as Hong Kong and Singapore.

Reg Clark and Tim Lambert conclude Rhino Asia agreement at Centaurs office in Turf City Singapore

The tie up was announced at a press conference held at the Swiss Club in Singapore on October 7th , which also featured the first demonstration in Asia of the Collision King, Rhino’s groundbreaking new product.

‘Geographical expansion into rapidly growing rugby markets such as Asia and the United States is an important part of our strategy at a time when domestic markets remain sluggish’ commented Rhino Group CEO, Reg Clark.

Centaurs Group MD Tim Lambert expressed his delight at the new development –‘this is a very significant development for Centaurs, and we are very confident we can consolidate and strengthen Rhino’s market leading reputation as a rugby brand in the Asian region’.