On Easter Monday 28th March 2016, the Bellona Rugby Union Association (BRUA) led by their president Lungu Kiloko and his vice Andrew Batangi kick start their season with the successful roll out of the new rebranded Get Into Rugby (GIR) initiative at Gongona village on Bellona island in the Renbel Province.
The program started around 10am that morning with the organization of teams in various age groups and gender, before Lungu and Andrew with the help of 2 female and 6 male coaches run practical coaching sessions, where participants were taught the rules and playing methods involved in different stages of the GIR program.
The program was an introductory one for GIR on Bellona, hence each age groups from the little kids aged 5 to 12, teenagers aged 13 to 19 and adults between ages 20 up to 40 plus, both boys and girls, men and women, took their turns to learn the different stages of the GIR curriculum from stages one to eight, before a new group was introduced to the field.
So by mid-afternoon that day every corners of Gongona’s church lawn where the program was held were filled with children and youth playing tag and touch rugby.
It was a day of rugby, fun and feed, as food such as sweets, snacks and drinks were also served to those participating.
More than one hundred twenty participants participated in the program and everyone that the organizers had spoken with expressed their excitement in being part of the program and they said that they had had a good time and would love to see more of this organized on the island. The program finishes around 4pm with some announcements from the islands rugby committee and some planning going forward.
It was an exciting experience for participants from not only Gongona village, but other communities on the island, who spoke very highly of the new World Rugby initiative. And for an island that cherished rugby so much and a province that perceived rugby as their number one sport, the recent Easter Monday’s event was a special one, as the festival like event had reinvigorated the peoples love for rugby once more.
