This tournament was brought forward not to clash with the 2007 Rugby World Cup – they probably didn’t want the old blokes to steal any of the younger players’ thunder!

This tournament was played among three venues around the city with the welcoming ceremony in Ta Papa, the national museum.

The Old Tassie Devils enjoyed a healthy influx of ‘virgins’ for this tour and the newcomers acquitted themselves admirably (at times). It was also heartening to see Graeme Jackson back on the field, wearing gold shorts and enjoying his rugby once again after his nasty injury in the USA the year before. Our first game here was against an Auckland side that ran on two women, leaving the OTDs a little confused as to what to do in terms of tackling. Unfortunately for some of the Old Tassie Devils, the women had no such hesitation.

The second game was against aside of ex-pat Kiwis, the Mariners, living in Sydney and was played in good spirit (starting off with rum of course). Unfortunately, captain Paul Smith suffered a tournament ending injury and was confined to side line where he gave ‘expert’ advice.

The final game was against Cus Catania from Sicily and was played in excellent spirits with the Italians appreciating the OTDs’ sense of humour at the kick-off (thankfully). A highlight of this game was playing against David Campisi (unfortunately no relation to Wallaby Campo) but it game the boys bragging rights – “we played against Campisi”.

A wine trip by the majority of the team to the wine country just north of Wellington revealed that there is more to the OTDS than just playing rugby and swilling beer! The grand finale event was less than impressive, featuring finger food in a beer garden type environment at Te Papa and the OTDS having to keep close watch on our mascot Debbie who became the object of the desire by an Italian team.

Written By Bob Anthony