Our 2018 registration day at Boronia Park was a huge hit with guests:

• Waratah players and former Hunters Hill Juniors Andrew Kellaway and Hugh Roach along with other ‘tahs team members
• Pearls players, Gold Medalists and Winning Sydney 7s stars Shannon Parry and Emma Tonegato
• Infamous blue hulk … Tah Man!

The HSBC World Rugby Sevens series consists of 10 tournaments held around the world, in which national sevens teams compete for series points at each round. The third round of the series was played here in Sydney in January over the Australia Day weekend. At the tournament two Hunters Hill dads were fortunate enough to be appointed as Liaison officers for the Kenyan mens national sevens team. Gareth Healey (the u15 Huntsman coach in 2017) and Ross Nassif (the HHJRU u13 Age Co-ordinator in 2017) were charged with the task of looking after the Kenyan team in the week leading up to and during the tournament.

The HHJRU President Adam Latham suggested to Gareth and Ross that it would be a nice touch if the national Kenyan were presented with training jerseys from the 2017 NSW Club of Year. In handing out the jerseys to the Kenyan team a number of the players indicated that they would be donating the jerseys to the kids who played grass roots rugby in Kenya. The Kenyan team manager, Erik Ogweno then described the state of grass roots rugby in Kenya and the impoverished state whereby the kids don’t have boots or jerseys and attached are some photos that gave us an insight into how little the kids have. Erik explained that Rugby in Kenya survives because of the effort and commitment of hardworking development officers who are operating on the smell of an oily rag. Adam and the rest of the HHJRU committee quickly went about moving and passing a resolution which saw Ross and Gareth handing over the the Kenyan team about two boxes worth of the 2017 training jerseys.

The future of Rugby in Kenya has so much potential and the national team is punching above its weight in the World Series – highlighted by their silver medal in the last leg of the series in Vancouver where Kenya were outplayed by the the mighty Fiji team in the final of that series. The photos that were shared with us this week represent the future of Kenyan Rugby and the 2017 club of the year has played its part in the development of international rugby.