Rugby Minor Sport In Hawaii

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30633, 26 December 1964, Page 15

Rugby Minor Sport In Hawaii

Rugby is very much a small-time sport in Hawaii. The Harlequins Club, formed some months ago by a band of enthusiasts is the only actual club although the Church College of Hawaii (a university run by the Mormon Church) recently allocated 12,000 dollars to establish the sport in the college, says a letter to “The Press” from C. R. Hockley, captain of the Canterbury University Rugby team which recently’ played in Honolulu. “Our manager, Tom Moynihan. and some of the team spoke to a group of interested students and presented them with a Rugby ball, some rule books and hand books on the fundamentals of the game. “An unexpected rain storm washed out the first game of the tour at the Honolulu Stadium. The stadium was to be used for a big gridiron game on Saturday and the authorities would not risk damage to the playing surface.

“In place of the evening fixture a rather informal match was played at one of the high school grounds and the tourists defeated the Hawaiian Harelequins by a comfortable margin 21-3. “The first impressions the

party had of Honolulu as the giant Boeing airliner glided in to land after the six-hour flight from Fiji were of the size of the palm-fringed airfield and its great complex of modern buildings. Even at 9.30 a.m. the temperature was a sweltering 80 degrees. “A hectic 25-minute drive through down-town Honolulu and the team arrived at the East-West Centre where it was met by Mr Baden Pere, a Maori whose official designation is ‘Co-ordinator of Student Activities.’

“The centre is a project on which the U.S. Government has spent 32 million dollars since it was founded four years ago. Students from Pacific and Asian countries are offered scholarships which provide for transportation to and from Hawaii, free text books and tuition at the University of Hawaii, free lodging at the centre’s 12-storey building and an allowance of 150 dollars a month to cover the cost of meals at the university’s huge cafeteria. “After two and a half very enjoyable days in Hawaii the team moved on to the more strenuous part of its itinerary. Its first three games in Japan take place in the space of only seven days.”