The China Lions, the newest team as part of the Global Rapid Rugby tournament, will play a GRR warmup game this weekend versus Manuma Samoa on Saturday, March 7th 2020 in New Zealand.
The 2020 Rapid Rugby season gets underway officially on March 14th with all six teams in action.
GRR Teams 2020
- Western Force
- Malaysia Valke
- Fijian Latui
- Manuma Samoa
- South China Tigers
- China Lions
China Lions
The China Lions were confirmed as a team in late January 2020 and have had several disruptions to deal with for their first season. The Coronavirus outbreak in China means the team will be based in NZ and all their home games will be played there.
The rugby team is a joint venture between the China Rugby Football Association and New Zealand’s domestic club Bay of Plenty.
For this weekends game, China Lions head coach Mike Rogers says “his side is excited about the challenge of creating rugby history.”
In a press release from the team, they say they are ”looking to play an action-packed brand of rugby” and added,“the competition in this format has never been played before and it’s basically going to be a race to see who can adapt quickly to the rules, who can come out with strategies around playing in different locations and countries.”
There is free entry to the game at Blake Park, Mount Maunganui, New Zealand with kickoff at 3PM. There is no live stream for this pre-season game.
China Lions Team
1. Solomona Sakalia
2. Nic Souchon
3. Tevita Mafileo
4. Hoani Matenga
5. Stan van den Hoven
6. Joe Johnston
7. Kohan Herbert
8. Hugh Blake
9. Te Aihe Toma
10. Dan Hollinshead
11. Fa’asiu Fuatai
12. James Little
13. Mathew Skipwith-Garland
14. Tyler Campbell
15. Pryor Collier
Reserves:
16. Greg Pleasants-Tate
17. Toni Toia
18. Viliami Leo Tosi
19. Haereiti Hetet
20. Iosefa Maloney
21. Ray Tatafu
22. Luke Campbell
23. Liam Coombes-Fabling
24. Dwayne Sweeney
25. Solofa Silipa
26. Declan Barnett
- Venue: Blake Park, Mount Maunganui, New Zealand
- Date: Saturday, March 7th 2020
https://www.facebook.com/rapidrugby/videos/2560485100864733/?t=2
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