Seafarers to carry climate message

Otago University Seafarers captain Jake Maiono admires the shirt to be used by his team, as worn...
Otago University Seafarers captain Jake Maiono admires the shirt to be used by his team, as worn by Jackson Ingram at a training at Logan Park this week. Photo: Gregor Richardson.
Is it somewhat apt a sevens tournament which has a theme highlighting climate change is being held at Kettle Park?

The Otago University Seafarers sevens tournament is set for the home ground of the Dunedin Rugby Football Club on October 8.

Eight teams will compete in the inaugural tournament.

The Seafarers are a group of keen rugby players, many of them from the Pacific Islands, who have been around for a couple of years.

Captain and one of the organisers of the side, Jake Maiono, said the Seafarers name came from how the side came from all parts of the world with the common good of helping a worthy cause.

They did not want to exclude anyone and the theme for the side this year was to highlight the issue of global warming and climate change.

Last year the side competed in a couple of tournaments while stressing the issue of mental health, following the suicide of their friend and fellow rugby player Makisua Tanuvasa Tili, who took his life as a 17-year-old, when still at school, five years ago.

Maiono said the team would be playing in jerseys highlighting climate change and there would be a short speech from a University of Otago lecturer on climate change at the prizegiving after the games.

The Seafarers will have two teams entered in the tournament, along with a University premier side, a University Colts side, a side from Alhambra-Union, the Canterbury Fijians, Selwyn College and a team from Central Otago called the Kawarau Miners.

There is a cash prize of  $1000 for the winning team.

First game will be at 9am and the final about 3pm.

Kettle Park was chosen as it is one of the few grounds in Dunedin still marked out and with rugby posts.

The ground has come under attack in the past few years by the ocean, as the sand dunes behind the ground disappear and sand is blown on to the ground in high winds.

Whether that is caused by climate change, as the swell gets bigger and winds stronger, is up for debate. 

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