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Barbarians make donation to Matt Ratana Rugby Foundation eight weeks after cancellation of England game in his honour
By Online Editors
Eight weeks after the Barbarians match with England was dramatically called off for Covid bubble beaches, the club's charitable trust have given a £10,000 grant to the Matt Ratana Rugby Foundation supporting coaching initiatives both in the UK and in New Zealand.
PC Ratana was tragically killed last September in London and the October 25 Barbarians versus England match was due to honour his memory, However, breaches that resulted in sanctions for 13 Barbarians players saw the game called off 48 hours before it was due to take place at Twickenham.
To help make amends, the Barbarians have now shown their support for the Ratana foundation. "Matt represented so many of the core values of rugby that are integral to the rugby family around the world and resonate so strongly with our own Barbarians family," said Barbarians president John Spencer.
"He was a true inspiration to so many and remains an inspiration as his legacy takes shape. We are looking forward to developing our support of the foundation in the longer term, working to help provide life-changing opportunities through rugby, making a long-lasting difference and promoting the values of the Rugby community, its diversity, multiculturalism, enjoyment and respect."
Ratana’s partner Su Bushby welcomed the contribution, saying: “I’d like to express my great thanks to the Barbarians Rugby charitable trust for this grant. We had looked forward to the Barbarians being able to honour Matt’s memory in the match against England back in October.
"I’m very touched the trust is contributing to his legacy. The grant from the Barbarians will go a long way to helping realise initiatives inspired by Matt and it is a great honour to have such significant support from a well-loved global rugby club.”
The foundation, which launched last month, aims to provide life-changing opportunities to younger people in need and to support communities through the medium of rugby around the world, including exchanges with clubs in New Zealand.
Foundation lead Sean Morgan said: “Delivering schemes like this is so important to ensuring we help remember Matt, but more importantly we hope that we will create programmes that exemplify the ethos of Matt and the values of the Barbarians, both of which are so well aligned and keep them going for years to come.”
- The Barbarians website has more details on the work of the foundation or you can learn more at https://mattratanarugby.foundation
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Agree with Wilson B- at best. And that is down to skilled individual players who know how to play the game - not a cohesive squad who know their roles and game plan. For those who claim that takes time to develop, the process is to keep the game plan simple at first and add layers as the squad gels and settles in to the new systems. Lack of progress against the rush D, lack of penetration and innovation in the mid-field, basic skill errors and loose forwards coming second in most big games all still evident in game 14 of the season. Hard to see significant measureable progress.
Go to commentsKeep telling yourself that. The time for a fresh broom is at the beginning - not some "balanced, incremental" (i.e. status quo) transition. All teams establish the way forward at the beginning. This coaching group lacked ideas and courage and the players showed it on the pitch. Backs are only average. Forwards are unbalanced and show good set piece but no domination in traditional AB open play. Unfortunately, Foster - Mark 2. You may be happy with those performances and have some belief in some "cunning plan" but I don't see any evidence of it. Rassie is miles ahead and increasing the gap.
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