Rhino and Rhino Turf were out early this morning in glorious sunshine setting out our stall for the Rosslyn Park National School Sevens. A world record 7,500 players are set to take part in the coming 5 days.

As usual Reggie the Rhino was the immediate star attraction, with the Rhino Collision Kings a close second.

L to R: Nick Fox (Sports Direct.com), Reg Clark (CEO of Rhino Rugby), Andrew Statham (Newark Chairman) and Craig Barnsdale (Captain)

Sports Direct.com as Official High Street Retailer of Sport Relief staged a rugby match to support the charity at Newark RFC yesterday.

A Sports Direct.com XV, kitted out by Rhino Teamwear, and which had prepared for the game using Rhino training equipment narrowly lost 11-10 in a keenly contested game against a Newark XV in front of a good crowd who donated generously during and after the game.

Rhino CEO Reg Clark and Nick Fox of Sports Direct.com presented the training equipment after the game to Newark Chairman Andrew Statham to thank the club for its support.

Whilst Rhino Rugby is proud of its Official supplier relationships with the Lions, England, Wales, Bath, Cardiff and Wasps, we are also committed to supporting grass roots rugby.

The nearest club to our HQ and manufacturing operations in Somerset is Cheddar Valley RFC and our West London office has for many years had a close relationship with London Japanese RFC. We therefore decided to donate the magnificent mounted Rhino head that has graced our London office for many years as a trophy for an annual game between the two clubs.

On St Patricks Day the two sides met at the Richmond Athletic Ground during Cheddar’s London tour and an excellent game ensued which was finely balanced at 10 all going into the final minutes, at which point man of the match Matt Vaughan burst through the centre for a well taken try to give Cheddar a 15-10 victory.

Both sides repaired to the clubhouse to watch the final 6 Nations games and the Rhino Trophy moved on the next day to its new home in the White Hart in Cheddar, which is looking forward to welcoming London Japanese at the time of the return game next season.

	Above: The London Japanese and Cheddar Valley sides after the game. Bottom left: Rhino CEO Reg Clark ceremonially takes down the Rhino Trophy from the wall of the company’s offices in West London and presents it to Cheddar Valley RFC Chairman Patrick Cullen during a welcome drinks reception for the touring party. Bottom right: The Trophy arrives at its new spiritual home with the returning tourists.

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Despite losing the PCubed Varsity Rugby League Match by a record 48-0 margin, Cambridge University took a crumb of comfort from a 2-1 win over Oxford in the Rhino half time crossbar goalkicking challenge last night.

Rhino was delighted to be both teamwear supplier this season to the victorious Oxford team and the match ball supplier for the Varsity game - the first appearance of our Vortex Elite XIII rugby league match ball.

Three old boys of each club lined up at half time in a dual attempt to kick a goal from the 20 to win a Rhino Vortex Elite XIII ball and/or hit the bar to win Rhino equipment for their Varsity club.

Both James Hunt of Cambridge and James Boyle of Oxford came close to hitting the bar and together with James Shearman of Cambridge went away with their prize for successfully kicking a goal. The efforts of Howie Dormer of Oxford and Mark Ramsdale of Cambridge by contrast left both of them grateful that Sky Sports didn’t televise the event this year.

A crowd of over 1,000 at the Richmond Athletic Ground witnessed a dominant performance by Oxford over a Cambridge club that is currently struggling with its Blues committee over the status of the game in the University.

Both sides were extremely complimentary about the performance of the Rhino ball having extensively trialled it before the game.

Rhino Directors Tony Colquitt and Reg Clark, together with Dave Reynish and Keiron Blackburn of Rhino Teamwear, host Mike ‘Stevo’ Stephenson of Sky Sports and a galaxy of Oxford University rugby union and league legends at the pre match dinner.

Rhino's new Vortex XIII rugby league match ball was unveiled today by the captains of the Oxford and Cambridge sides ahead of their Varsity game on Thursday March 8th at the Richmond Athletic Ground in which the ball will be used.

Ben Calverley of Oxford, currently holders of the KJ Lee Trophy, and Matt Commin of Cambridge attended the launch event at the Bloomsbury offices of PCubed, sponsors of the event for the last 14 years. The first Varsity Rugby League Match took place in 1981.

Rhino have been Official Suppliers of training equipment to St Helens rugby league club for 5 years now and are additionally Official Teamwear Suppliers to North Wales Crusaders and Oxford University rugby league clubs.

The Vortex XIII ball represents a further move by Rhino into the league code, following on from their success as ball suppliers to the British & Irish Lions and the RaboDirect PRO12 in rugby union.

Tony Colquitt, a Rhino Director who recently stood down after 5 successful years as CEO of St Helens, commented: "we are delighted that the Rhino Vortex XIII is making its debut in the Varsity Rugby League Match and are confident it can go on to be more widely adopted throughout the game".

PRESS RELEASE

The Lions Prepare with Rhino for Wallabies Clash

Reg Clark, Rhino Rugby’s CEO, Reggie the Rhino, Rhino Rugby’s mascot, and Andy Irvine, British & Irish Lions Tour Manager

Image copyright www.photofortyone.com

Rugby brand named as Official Supplier for 2013 Australia Tour

Rhino, the world’s leading supplier of contact and training equipment for rugby, announced today that it has been appointed as an Official Supplier to The British & Irish Lions 2013 Australia Tour.

As for the Lions 2009 Tour to South Africa, Rhino has moreover a dual role – the Somerset based company is to supply not only the training equipment the squad will use at each training venue in the UK & Ireland, Hong Kong and Australia, but also the Official Training Ball and commemorative ball collection for the Tour.

Rhino CEO Reg Clark expressed delight at the re-appointment: ‘we are thrilled to once more be a part of The Lions family for this Tour and are pleased to note the continuity in terms of personnel and other Tour sponsors. We are looking forward very much to working with them all again. Heritage is a major part of Rhino’s brand and it is hard to find a rugby entity more imbued with this than The Lions.’

Tour Manager Andy Irvine, himself a legendary British & Irish Lions player from the 1974, 1977 and 1980 Tours commented: ‘The British & Irish Lions are delighted to welcome Rhino Rugby back as an Official Supplier for the 2013 Tour. The quality of their equipment is well known and was much appreciated by the 2009 Tour management and players. Rhino is well known for being a cutting edge developer of innovative new products and is additionally now an established performance ball manufacturer.’

Today’s appointments were announced in the Attlee Room of the House of Lords at a reception hosted by Liberal Democrat peer Lord Dholakia.

-ENDS-

Luciano Orquera of Aironi set a new kicking standard in the RaboDirect PRO12 competition with nine successful penalty kicks in the 27-13 win over Treviso in the Italian derby. The fly-half gave some of the credit for his success to the new Rhino Vortex rugby ball.

"I was delighted to score 9 out of 9 penalty kicks during...."

VORTEX ELITE INTERNATIONAL MATCH RUGBY BALL

Tony Colquitt, who recently stood down as CEO of St Helens RLFC, has joined the board of Rhino Rugby.

Colquitt became a Director of the Saints in 2005, and following his appointment as CEO in March 2007, the club won back to back Challenge Cup Finals, four successive League leaders Shields and have now appeared in six successive Grand Finals. Off the field during this period Saints secured planning and finance to move into their brand new 20,000 capacity stadium which opens shortly, and opened a new training and elite player development centre . The club also developed a wide portfolio of commercial partnerships , including groundbreaking deals with Australian based companies.

Prior to that Colquitt had over 25 years experience in blue chip FMCG companies leading to senior board level director roles, most prominently with Gillette where he covered both codes of rugby and soccer in a sports marketing and brand development capacity.

Rhino first signalled signalled their intention to move into the rugby league market when they signed a ground - breaking deal with St Helens RLFC in 2008, and recruited former Bradford Bulls player and GB rugby league Team Manager Abi Ekoku as a Director in the same year. They are also current teamwear supplier to Oxford University RLFC.

Rhino CEO Reg Clark commented: 'We are delighted to have Tony on board having got to know him well through our Official Supplier relationship with the Saints in recent years. He has a breadth of experience of brand development and marketing which together with his knowledge of the commercial aspects of the world of sport generally and rugby in particular will be invaluable to us. We also hope he will help us maintain our push into the rugby league market."

St Helens and Rhino celebrate their Official Supplier deal and Saints winning the League Leaders Shield after a draw with Wigan at Knowsley Road in September 2008. Reg Clark and Tony Colquitt hold the recently retained Rugby League Challenge Cup with Abi Ekoku far left.

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".