Bali Rugby Club
The Story so far……….
2008 Bali Senior Team
Rugby in Bali traces its roots back to 1995 when a group of Bali expats and visitors formed a team to participate in the the annual Bali 10’s Rugby tournament,lead by the Sutherland brothers Hamish & Sandy,the team a mixture of surfers and UWA players which took its name from its Mambo sponsored boxer shorts with a chicken motif,hence the team was known as the Bali Chooks.
After a successful 10 years in which the Bali Chooks won the Bali 10’s 5 times,second twice and the Plate once,in 2005 the Bali Chooks decided to to call it a day,and the Chooks were retired.
In early 2006 with a visiting French team looking for a game of rugby,the rugby team was reformed,with a view to a permanent club,so crystallising in mid 2006 with the founding of the Bali Rugby Club (BRC),by rugby stalwarts Craig Harrington, Rodney Holt, Robin Quinn, Ant Lennan, and with Riki Teteina as founding President. Affiliated with the Indonesian Rugby Football Union (Governing body of Rugby in Indonesia) (IRFU), which in turn is a member of ARFU & associate member of IRB and KONI (Indonesia’s Olympic Federation), Bali Rugby has a mandate to develop and manage the game of Rugby through out the Island of the Gods.
In its first year, BRC’s goals were modest; only to enter a team in the Bali 10’s Rugby tournament, and the Bali Chilli’s were born .
Flush with new found confidence, BRC set its horizons higher in 2007,with a number of firsts. Namely, first tour, which was to the Jakarta 10’s which saw BRC eliminated on a count back, even though BRC remained undefeated.
From that tournament saw the first BRC players selected to the Indonesian National team (Rhinos), with Rodney Holt going on to play for Indonesia in the successful 2007 Asian Rugby Football Union Championship,following which he retired,focusing on developing rugby in Bali as the new Bali Rugby President and was elected to the Indonesian RFU Board.
In its effort to promote the game of Rugby in Bali, BRC hosted its first tournament in August 2007, a Touch Rugby Championship with teams from around Indonesia and in a major first, the first Beach Rugby tournament held in Indonesia.
2007 Thiess Bali 10’s saw Bali entering a record 3 teams, including the first Bali team composed of Balinese under coach Robin Quinn.
The BRC firsts continued with the Bali Schoolboy Tour to Jakarta in November 2007 with Kurt Lovell to the British International School U16 10’s. Once again BRC schoolboys with only three months practice, performed creditably against much more experienced opponents.
So after a momentous 2007 ,BRC kept the momentum moving forward in 2008 with the first tour by the Bali Development Team of Balinese players to the Sengatta 10’s (Borneo) in March followed by Bali Senior Team coming 3rd in the Jakarta 10’s in May ,and from that tournament BRC players; Nathan Flax, Grant “Olly” Olsen and Mark Parthezious, were selected for the 2008 Indonesian National Team (Rhinos) for the HSBC Asian 5 Nations regional series against Laos & Cambodia in July in Jakarta and Cameron “Unit” Black played for the Indonesian Barbarians against Macau .
In August, in another first, Bali Rugby hosted the Bali National 10’s and Bali Beach Rugby Cup .The National 10’s is a format with aim of fostering rugby in Indonesia,with 80% of the players on the field must be Indonesian citizens.The Bali Development team recorded its first wins on its way to 3rd place.
In the 2008 Bali Intenational 10’s Bali Rugby entered 2 teams,a senior team which got as far as the Cup semi final and the Development team which won the Jug competition,the Development team’s first silverware.
At the 1st Asian Beach Games in Bali,Bali Rugby hosted an exhibition of Beach Rugby 5’s
BRC’s newly appointed RDO Denholm Mchardy was quick into the action,being instrumental in the Indonesian Barbarians Bowl win in the 2008 Singapore Cricket Club 7’s in November
Late 2008 saw the start of Bali Rugby Academy,in two locations Bali International School and Canggu Club,for young players.
In 2009, Bali Rugby in its role of developing and expanding rugby in Bali,will be hosting the following
Bali Midnight 10’s (9 April) Men & Women
Bali Junior 10’s (16 May) U8 –U18
Bali Touch Rugby Challenge ( June)
Bali National 10’s (17 August)
Bali Beach Rugby 5’s Cup (18 August)
Bali 10’s (October)
A special mention should be made of Gunther “the Big G” Kitzler and Greg “Hinchy” Hinchcliffe who first turned out for the Bali Chooks in 1995 and are still on the paddock for the 2009 Bali Chilli’s
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Text and images courtesy of Rodney Holt
