Naas Rugby Club will be the base camp for
the New Zealand team during their stay in Naas. Club Chairperson
Jonn Mullan reports that "55 club members have signed
up for the Host Town Volunteer Programme, and that every
effort will be made to make the team feel at home at Forenaughts".
John continues ''as a community based club we are pleased
to be actively involved in the Special Olympics World Games
and will promote the aims of the games to our young section,
which comprises of over 300 members.
The main sporting link between Ireland and
New Zealand has been rugby and we hosted the New Zealand
under-21 touring team at Forenaughts a few years ago. In
addition we have had excellent coaches at the club from
New Zealand - Snowy Ford, Kevin West and Milan Yelavitch
have contributed significantly to bringing us from a junior
club to a senior club, playing in the All-Ireland League.
Our under- 10s recently had a coaching session with New
Zealand superstar All Black, Jonah Lomu, they have been
in serious training to fine tune their Haka - Jonah said
'their performance was "awesome"' so we will be
able to give the New Zealanders a good Forenaughts version
when they arrive."
The Irish Rugby Football Union has contributed
€50,000 to the National Special Olympics World Games
organisers; the Leinster Branch has also raised funds for
the games.
Forenaughts has been the training camp for
the Irish National Rugby Team this season and their training
sessions in Naas have attracted a great geal of interest
especially as past Naas player Geordan Murphy has established
himself on the team with outstanding performances on the
international stage.
The first port of call for the New Zealand team in Naas
will be Naas Rugby Club. Among the other facilities the
club will be providing are a Medical Centre, Internet Connection
and Computer Games. These facilities will allow the athletes
to contact home, if they wish, or if they need some relaxation
time.
HOST
TOWNS