Carnarvon rugby team on a Geraldton shark hunt

Carnarvon has a rugby team. At least for one game, that is. “It’s something out of the ordinary,” team organiser Amos Sipili said. A side from the Gascoyne town will visit Geraldton for a match against Tiger Sharks at Geraldton Rugby Park on March 12. “At this time, it’s just generating some sport for some guys who would normally just go play other sports,” Sipili said. “It’s just a fixture that we’ve been in contact with the Geraldton Rugby Club about. Since then, it’s setting up for training and getting ready for a game. (It’s) more a social group, having a bit of a go.” He said the town was considering holding annual games. “For now, it would be just these one-off games, and eventually if there’s enough interest generated it could become more of a competition,” he said. “Eventually it might, depending on whoever’s involved; we hope to build up the numbers. We might go and approach the schools (about junior development).” Sipili said the chance for a rivalry was helping raise interest. “We’re doing some fundraising, people are saying ‘What’s the sport again?’ And we say we’re going to play Geraldton, and our community pride, community spirit comes out,” he said. “We’ve gone through a phase where sports (have) sort of had a hard (time) to get volunteers, hard to get anything going. “For a minor sport like rugby compared to (Aussie Rules), cricket or soccer here, to come together just off the bat is very important. It shows in a game like rugby, there are people in town who are prepared to back it, help with our fundraiser, and help with those sort of things.” Sipili said introducing a new sport to people was part of the aim. “Some are playing their summer sport at the moment like cricket,” he said. “We have a few guys playing Aussie Rules, we have other guys (whose) thing is going camping and things like that ... (some have a) rugby league background or a soccer background, it’s just a matter of trying to gel them all together and get all of us to a level of fitness.” Sipili said if other towns close by wanted to participate, a weekend-long competition could be created. He said the team also gave people of different backgrounds a chance to play together. “We’ve got quite a mix of cultures playing in the team. Tongan, Fijian, European, Aboriginal, so no doubt we’ll have some more cultures joining in,” he said.