TORREVIEJA TIGERS RUGBY TAKES CENTRE STAGE

Sport » Rugby

Keith Nicol / 2012-05-13 13:52:06

The Mayor and Dani Plaza were both impressed at the progress the Tigers have made in their first season

It was the turn of the oval ball to take centre stage in Torrevieja on Saturday when some senior and under 14 players from Torrevieja Tigers put on a short demonstration of skills for invited guests. The fledging rugby club have just completed their first season and continue to grow in numbers and stature. The mayor of Torrevieja.

Eduardo Dolon, visited the Rugby Field "Nelson Mandela" along with Sport Councillor Dani Plaza, for Foreigners Rosario Martinez and Director of the Sports Facilities, Snr. Carmona to find out more for themselves.

Te guests of honour on Saturday were Ignacio Davila, President of the Valencia Rugby federation and David ‘Dai’ Pickering, an IRB committee member in charge of European Rugby Development. Dai is a former Wales international rugby union player, winning 23 caps for Wales between 1983 and 1987 and captained the national team on eight occasions. He went on to coach Neath for five years before becoming Team Manager of the Wales national team. He is now Chairman of the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU), serves on the board of the Millennium Stadium, is a member of the International Rugby Board Council and is also the 6 nations chairman.

The Mayor and Dani Plaza were both impressed at the progress the Tigers have made in their first season, especially the stability that the club has and the international mix of players, although they were both even more surprised to note that the majority of players are Spanish, rather than from the six nations! Dai Pickering was suitably impressed with the fantastic facilities offered in Torrevieja and said it was one of the most complete sports complexes that he had seen in his travels, and for the size of the city of Torrevieja, one of the best anywhere.

After appearing in front of TV cameras and posing for photographs, President of the Torrevieja Tigers Ian Baker presented Eduardo Dolon with a Torrevieja Tigers Rugby Shirt, while a couple of casual onlookers had a bit of fun with Eduardo noting that he might need to find some time to get back into the gym, in order to be able to fill out the shirt!

The evening continued with their first end of season dinner, which 150 players and family attended. Jeff Davies and Dai Pickering said a few words of thanks to everyone and coming, and being from the land of song, Dai even sang a version of ‘Summertime’ for the entertainment of the crowd. An excellent day to end the rugby season.

Next Saturday the club are doing a sponsored ‘static’ bike ride from Torrevieja to Lorca, to help raise funds for the club and for the earthquake victims of Lorca. Fit4All have supplied the team with some spinning bikes, which will be set up at St. James’s Gate pub, and teams of six players will race against each other to ‘cycle’ to Lorca. For more information on making a donation to this event or about the rugby club, please visit them on Facebook.