Newsletter 2025 #1 April 1

Talofa lava,

As we head into round one, it's fantastic to see all six of our teams playing this Saturday! I'm excited about the season and impressed with the turnout for preseason training across all teams, with a visible buzz and positive vibe amongst the teams.

Here’s the draw for this Saturday, and we'd love to see all our supporters, families, and friends there to support our teams. Your presence at the games would be greatly appreciated.

JRFC Membership:

As a member, you'll receive a membership card for the season, which includes an invitation to the Old Timers lunch for $30 and will also help when purchasing alcoholic drinks at the bar. You can pay into the club account:

JRFC Hawks

Account: 01 - 0519 - 0070195 - 02

Reference: Your Name

You can collect your card from Cherie Collins on Saturday after 2 PM. If you've already paid the 125th registration fee, you don't need to pay the $30, and your membership card will be available at the clubrooms this Saturday. If you’d prefer to pay cash on Saturday, please let me know in advance so we can arrange it.

For Life Members and Club/Team Sponsors, your cards will also be ready.

Team Managers, please email Cherie the team list of the players, coaches, and managers by Thursday to organise their cards.

Your support is essential in ensuring smooth operations. Members will need to show their membership card to purchase any alcoholic beverages. Please don't be offended if you can't be served without it.

For our signing-in policy, any guests who want to purchase alcohol will need to sign in as a visitor and show their ticket. Two Executive Committee members will be on duty to assist with signing people in. Please note that signing in or showing a membership card is not required for non-alcoholic drinks.

Old Timers/125th Jubilee:

We are excited to announce the plans for JRFC’s 125th Anniversary celebrations. This milestone event will be combined with Old Timers 2025 and promises to be a fantastic weekend of rugby, camaraderie, and celebration.  An email has been sent with more details. If you have not received communication regarding this, please let me know via chair@jrfc.co.nz or contact me on 027 828 2468.

Premier Team Day Camp:

Over the weekend our Premier squad had the opportunity to attend a fantastic day camp focused on Team building, Club History, Team Values. The players engaged in various training sessions, enhancing their techniques and strategies for on and off the field, while enjoying the camaraderie of their teammates.

A special thank you goes out to our guest speakers, Brian Woolley & Fili Liua'ana who shared their invaluable insights and experiences with our players. Their contributions made a significant impact, inspiring our squad to strive for excellence both on and off the field.

 Left to Right: Dallas Paotonu (Head Coach), Fili Liua'ana, Brian Wolley, Paul Wharekura.

Club and Team Sponsors:

We will be spending 5 minutes getting to know our Sponsors.  It is our pleasure to introduce Scott Johnson, Director from Vertex Scaffolding.

Vertex scaffolding has been running for ten years. We have grown in this space over time to be a leading company in the scaffold space.

We have employed some young lads from the rugby club over the years with Josh Betham still working for us. We came on board last year with the scaffolding for the rugby club’s new roof.

With a call from one of our loyal clients, Perry, we made a deal in rental costs. We are very proud to help a community club and look forward to watching some games and following the club’s progress.

5 quick questions:

• Favourite pass time: Travel, hunting, fishing, and diving.

• Favourite meal: Can’t beat a roast lamb

• If I could have dinner with two people, who would they be?

Dinner with Winston Churchill would be interesting, and Billy T James for a good laugh.

• Favourite Band: Rolling Stones.

• Favourite movie: The Martian.

Before I sign off, I would like to wish our team's good luck for Saturday. Wear that jersey with pride, and play for each other, your club and your wider Hawkes whanau.  

Ia manuia

Susan.