Hawaii Youth Rugby vs Pacific Coast Grizzly U17 All Stars

Here's what I can piece together from the Hawaii Youth Rugby website and some emails I've received:

The Pacific Coast Grizzly U17 All Star team will be touring Hawaii in a week or two (unsure of the start of the tour). They will start off on Maui, travel to Oahu, then finish up in Kona on the Big Island (officially Kailua-Kona on the Island of Hawaii if you're not familiar with the islands).

On Oahu, the Grizzly will play an Oahu All Star team on Saturday, December 19th, at Kapiolani Park (time?). On Friday the 18th at 4:30 pm there will be a barbecue at the park for the teams, and another barbecue following the Saturday match. We love to eat here in Hawaii. A 2-Barbecue Extravaganza according to one of the emails.

BBQ expertise (that leave me out), food, and cash donations are most welcome. Contact Hawaii Youth Rugby or David Ma'afu Wendt to donate or for more information. I know they're looking for help getting the team from the airport to the park & their hotel when they arrive in Honolulu (sometime on the 18th).

The tourists leave for the Big Island on December 21st, to play their match against the Big Island Select U17 on December 23rd.

That sounds like a great Christmas Present to the all the players and fans. Come out to your respective venue and support Hawaii Youth Rugby and the touring side players and coaches.

Also, Hawaii Youth Rugby needs your donations to help fund all the great programs they're running. Information regarding donations (tax deductible) are on the website (I'll be writing my check and sending it in, as I'm already past due in doing that).

Hawaii Rugby News

First, yesterday's game. The Hawaii Harlequins played Briars Rugby Club from New South Wales, Australia. Looking at their website, it seems they're on an end-of-season tour. Somebody told me they were heading to California. Cool. The score was 19-Harlequins : Briars 24. Briars scored four tries with two conversions. Two tries with conversions in the first half, and two unconverted tries in the second half. Harlequins scored three tries with two conversions. On unconverted try in the first half, then two tries with conversions in the second half. Since I arrived late, not knowing if there was a game and just showing up at the park, I only saw the second half. It was good though. As I said in a previous post, there's nothing like watching rugby up close and personal, even if it isn't the best rugby you've seen. What I saw of the game was pretty sloppy. A few good runs, but lots of bad passes, taking the ball while standing still, poor tackling, and the like. Still fun to watch though, so who's complaining.

What I did find at the game was some good information. Here's what I found, and what I found out last time I found a game.

There's a tournament next week, November 30 - December 1, at Kapiolani Park. That's the big park at the Diamond Head end of Waikiki, on Oahu, if you're not familiar with Hawaii. Should be fun. I'll be there. I don't know who all will be playing, but I now it's being hosted and organized by the Kalihi Raiders Rugby Club, and that the Islanders Rugby Club and the Barbarians (all from Oahu) will be participating. It's supposed to start at 11:00 am on Friday, the 30th.

Here's some information on clubs and their practices:

Hawaii Harlequins, practice Tues/Thur at 7:00 pm at Kapoalono Park in Kaimuki (near KCC, sort of). Their website is not too up to date, but there's some contact info.

Barbarians, practice Mon-Fri (so they say) at 5:30 pm at Paki Park, across from the Honolulu Zoo. No website and I don't have any contact info yet.

Kalihi Raiders Rugby Club, practice Mon-Thur at 6:30 pm at Kalakaua Field behind Farrington High School. No website and I don't have contact info yet.

Islanders Rugby Club, practice Tue/Thur at 5:30 pm at Kam Field (Kamehameha Field for those of you who don't like to see Kamehameha abbreviated like that), off of Likelike Highway mauka of H-1. I have a phone number for Lofi if you want to contact him.

I also spoke with someone who's involved with the Hawaii Youth Rugby League. They sound like they've got a good organization. Sounds like they just added a third team (U19, or Under 19 year olds) on the Big Island, which is really cool. There's supposed to be teams on Oahu and Maui, and then the three on the Big Island. I'll have to find out more about them and find out when and where they play. They have a website.

I also understand there's a team, the Hurricanes, on the North Shore (Oahu), so I'll have to find out about them too. They have a website.

I'll put links to the teams and organizations who have websites over on my links list, and when I find out more I'll post it here.


And don't forget to Adopt-A-Rugger and Hug-A-Rugger.