More egg chasing

Fresh on the back of an enjoyable Japanese Rugby World Cup despite Saturday morning’s disappointment, rugby union comes to Bermuda this week in the guise of a World Cup for veterans.

The World Rugby Classic takes place throughout this week at the National Stadium. There’s always a chill in the air, and it signals the start of our winter, which is a relative term I know, but it’s a busy and fun week watching some of the world’s once-best players battle it out for both pride and the title of the world’s best veterans rugby nation.

This all started in the 1970’s and early 80’s when Bermuda successfully invited a number of first class rugby union nations to play exhibition games here and some of the players liked the camaraderie and the rum cocktails so much they helped instigate a veteran’s tournament that came to fruition in 1988. Players such as Willie John McBride and JPR Williams were early guests as teams from all over the world came to contest the tournament. Wales won that first Classic in 1988 and in recent year Argentina’s Pumas have been dominant.

This year’s eight teams are the Canada, Italy, Argentina, France, Ireland, USA, South Africa and the British Lions and I will don my fleece and join a few others to watch the action.