Friday 27th January 2012, Wellington: This month Digicel Pacific sends six Rising Rugby Stars from three Pacific nations to the International Rugby Academy NZ (IRANZ) – the world’s leading independent high performance Rugby Academy. This is the first time in history that the Pacific Islands will contribute players to the academy where they will be coached by all-time rugby greats such as Graham Henry, Murray Mexted, Christian Cullen, Aaron Mauger, Craig Dowd and many other internationally renowned specialist coaches.
The Digicel Rising Rugby Stars contingent comprises of six rugby players from Samoa, Tonga and Papua New Guinea who have shown promise, commitment, skill, good character and good standing to the game and their communities. Each selected player has been nominated through a group decision with coaches and Rugby Football Union involvement and has been awarded a full scholarship via Digicel Pacific to attend this world renowned course.
The recipients of the Digicel Pacific scholarship include Samoa’s Pita Semeane and Iosefo Ropeti Lafo, Tonga’s Maleko Latu and Otulea Katoa and Papua New Guinea’s Billy Torea and Christopher Kakah. Running for three weeks, the IRANZ High Performance Players’ course will arm these players with mental, physical and technical knowledge to help them advance in their rugby careers. These players will return home with much improved skill and discipline and a serious goal to play for their country.
Digicel Pacific Commercial Director, Darren McLean commented on the program yesterday from Brisbane “we are delighted to again be involved in helping develop Pacific Island rugby talent and contribute players to IRANZ for the first time. We expect that the six selected players will learn from these rugby greats and return equipped with advanced skills and determination to represent their country on the global stage”.
IRANZ Managing Director and former All Black captain Murray Mexted gave an overview of the program and their objective for the course “Our High Performance course has a balance between practical and theory and is designed to show players what they need to know about themselves and what they need to do to reach their maximum potential. They all have different strengths and our goal is to help players refine those areas, giving them the confidence to use those strengths as their point of difference. Naturally they all have areas we can assist with and we aim to identify those areas and provide them with the means to improve”.
He continued “I am pleased that for the first time ever we have Pacific Island based players who are involved in the program and am grateful to Digicel for making this happen. There has been a trend for Pacific Island based players to drift to NZ or Australia to up skill and further their rugby careers. This initiative is designed to enable these players to return home and pass on their new knowledge and aspiration to play for their country. They will effectively become rugby role models and will help build the game in their home environment”.
The players depart for the academy on January 29th. To follow their progress and get daily updates visit the Facebook pages for the three contributing countries.
About Digicel
After ten years of operation, Digicel Group Limited has over 11 million customers across its 31 markets in the Caribbean, Central America and the Pacific. The company is renowned for delivering best value, best service and best network.
Digicel is the lead sponsor of Caribbean, Central American and Pacific sports teams, including the Special Olympics teams throughout these regions. Digicel sponsors the West Indies cricket team and is also the title sponsor of the Digicel Caribbean Cup. In the Pacific, Digicel is the proud sponsor of several national rugby teams and also sponsors the Vanuatu cricket team.
Digicel also runs a host of community-based initiatives across its markets and has set up Digicel Foundations in Jamaica, Haiti and Papua New Guinea which focus on educational, cultural and social development programs.
In 2004, Digicel developed Digicel Rising Stars – an annual talent show to support aspiring young music artists in the Caribbean. The show has spanned the Eastern Caribbean, Haiti, Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago ranking as one of the top-rated shows.
Digicel is incorporated in Bermuda and its markets comprise: Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, Aruba, Barbados, Bermuda, Bonaire, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Curacao, Dominica, El Salvador, Fiji, French Guiana, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, Nauru, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, St Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Suriname, Tonga, Trinidad & Tobago, Turks & Caicos and Vanuatu.
Digicel also has coverage in St. Martin and St. Barts in the Caribbean.
Visit http://www.digicelgroup.com/ for more information.