The Gold Coast Bulletin

Gold Coast makes play to join Beach World Tour

- EMMA GREENWOOD emma.greenwood@news.com.au

THE Gold Coast is set to make a bold bid to join the Beach Rugby World Tour, with a tournament next weekend aiming to pitch the city to the sport’s heavyweigh­ts.

The inaugural Beach Rugby Australia tournament will be held at Kirra Beach from Octo- ber 12-14, with at least 20 teams across colts, open men’s masters and women’s divisions hitting the sand.

Former Wallby Lote Tuqiri helped launch the series yesterday and could be a late entry in the masters division. The dual rugby internatio­nal last donned the boots in the NRL in 2014 but played a casual rugby tournament in Fiji recently and is a fan of the beach format.

“I’ve lived in Queensland my whole life and have an affinity with the Gold Coast. I spent a lot of time on the beach when I was young and this was just a good fit for me,” he said.

“This is a perfect backdrop on the Gold Coast, the sun’s out, it’s a perfect time of the year to play.”

Tuqiri helped launch the series alongside Gold Coast deputy Mayor Donna Gates, who said the event was great for the city.

“Since the (Commonweal­th) Games, we’ve positioned ourselves as a global events city, we’re doing over 900 events a year now and there’s more to come,” Cr Gates said. “It’s a huge event in Europe now, so hopefully we can be a part of that and the whole promotion is going to be fantastic for our city.”

Beach Rugby Australia director Peter Hickey said he hoped to build the tournament over the next few years to become an internatio­nal event.

“Long term, we hope the Gold Coast will host the Beach Rugby World Tour,” he said.

 ??  ?? Lote Tuqiri and Deputy Mayor Donna Gates at the launch.
Lote Tuqiri and Deputy Mayor Donna Gates at the launch.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Australia