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Mother Nature tried her best to spoil the party, but the New Zealand Junior Rugby Festival fought back to give more than 1000 children a weekend in Queenstown to remember.
The three-day tournament wrapped up last Sunday after bringing 53 under-10 to under-13 teams from around NZ to the resort.
Global Games boss Tyrone Campbell says the festival continued its recent run of bad luck with the weather, but ultimately delivered a “really great festival”.
Last Friday’s opening day was a washout after heavy rain and flooding hit Queenstown the night before, but the tournament got back on track the next day.
That was thanks to the Arrowtown and Cromwell rugby clubs for making their playing fields available to make up for the loss of some fields at the Queenstown Events Centre, Campbell says.
He is grateful to the local rugby community for “rallying around” the festival — they also opened up their clubrooms to host the visiting teams.
That meant the children and about 2000 supporters could enjoy a “really memorable weekend”.
“Considering everything, it was a really great festival and the feedback’s been really positive.”
Although Campbell had been surprised last year when Queenstown’s council barred the use of the Events Centre’s playing fields on the opening day due to heavy rain, this time there was “no question” it was the right call, he says.
One of the fields was literally a lake — “we didn’t have enough snorkel equipment to play on that one” — while another had a “river feature” running through it.
Some of the festival’s own team members were directly affected by the flooding — five people working as referees and medical staff had to be evacuated from a Fernhill house last Thursday night after a “river running through the property” made it unsafe, he says.
Fortunately, they were able to relocate to a second house on the same property.
Global Games is also hosting the Kiwi Junior Rugby League Festival in Queenstown next month.
Campbell says it has recently launched a ‘March to a Million’ campaign, aiming to connect one million people through sport, and is looking for a major naming-rights partner to help it “grow the impact even further”.
