LOCALS ATTENDING OZTAG WORLD CUP IN IRELAND IN AUGUST

The 2023 International Tag Federation World Cup takes place at the University of Limerick, from Wednesday 2nd to Saturday 5th August 2023.

ball closer to the target than the opposing team’s ball.

The Kangaroo Valley Pétanque Club committee organised a spectacular day of French themed fun, friendship, bonhomie and of course pétanque.

Teams were encouraged to dress up in a French theme, and many went to quite some effort to stand out! There were French aristocrats with white long-haired wigs, Marie Antoinettes, Arab Sheikhs, English gangsters, army combat teams, Tour de France cyclists, plus striped tops and berets galore!

Despite the many beers we consumed and after completing six round-robin games, we made it to the semi-finals against the “Whales of Wollongong”who won by a narrow margin and went on to the final against the KV Green team.

Oh well, there’s always next year? How about it – shall we form a pétanque team from Kiama to take part in 2024?

by Donna Portland

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Local resident Keiron Duncan will be representing

In 2019, the International Tag Federation (ITF) awarded the (then) 2021 ITF Tag World Cup to Ireland. After two COVID-related postponements, everyone is very excited to now be able to welcome players to Ireland. All previous Tag World Cups have taken place in the Southern Hemisphere, so this represents a big change. The ITF currently intends to run the following divisions at the 2023 Tag World Cup in Limerick:

• Men's 21s (21 or younger)

• Men's Open

• Men's Seniors (30 or older)

• Men's 40s

• Men's 50s

• Men's 60s

• Mixed 21s (21 or younger)

• Mixed Open

• Mixed Senior (Men 33 or older, women 30 or older) other countries. “This is outstanding representation from the Kiama, Gerringong, and Shoalhaven communities,” he says. “There may be others, I have done my best to include all of the Kiama based Australian players in the list below.”

• Men's 21s Australia: Cooper Lee, Cooper Roberts, Liam Vane-Tempest, Jarvis Austin.

• Men's Opens Australia: Kynan Ward

• Men's 40 Australia: - Keiron Duncan

• Men's 60: Ross Thomas, Bruce Kedja, John Constable

• Referee: Wayne Lees

• Men's 21s Australian Coach - Mark Gladman

Australia in the Mens 40s team which he is very excited about. “This will be my third Oztag World Cup! I can't wait to get over to Ireland and kick off the tournament along with my teammates who are from - Central Coast, Sydney, Wollongong, Newcastle, Canberra and Qld,” Keiron says. “These teams were selected from the previous Nationals Championships which were held in Coffs Harbour last November.”

Tag rugby is a non-contact version of rugby, in which each player wears a special belt that has two tags attached to it. Instead of being tackled, a player carrying the ball can be 'tagged' by having a tag removed from their belt by a member of the opposing team.

• Women's 21s (21 or younger)

• Women's Open

• Women's Seniors (30 or older)

• Women's 40s

It’s a jampacked schedule with training on Monday 31st in Ireland, followed by the opening ceremony on Tuesday. Then from Wednesday to Friday it is Round games, culminating in the Finals on Saturday.

Keiron informs, “The team schedule will include a total of nine games for Mens 40s if we make the Grand Final.” Our local community of Kiama/Gerringong and Shoalhaven has 14 representatives that Keiron knows of, who are either playing, coaching or refereeing in Ireland for Australia and

This is an impressive representation from our area with a large contribution from Ross Thomas who runs the Kiama Oztag Association which all of these people are involved in. Credit to Ross! Keiron adds, “I also run the Shoalhaven Oztag Association and Kiama Beach Tag Tournament with another colleague, so it just goes to show there are pathways for our players, coaches, referees to participate at the highest level.”

The Bugle also heard that a young Jamberoo lass, Emily Milne, will be representing the Irish exiles team because of her Irish heritage. Rules state that you are eligible to represent a country in which you, a parent or a grandparent was born, or in which you had at least three years of continuous residency prior to the 2023 ITF Tag World Cup.

The Bugle wishes all participants the best of luck at the Tag World Cup and looks forward to celebrating their victories!