THE Ugly Mongrels are competing in the world’s biggest over-35s rugby festival to be hosted in Cardiff next week.
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Mount Isa’s Shaine Hunter, Hag Harrison, Julian Graham and Dan Toia are among the nine players of the Ugly Mongrels side to compete in the 21st Golden Oldies Rugby Festival.
They are scheduled to play against Argentina, Canada, and Wales sides from Monday to Friday, at the University fields in the Llanrumney area.
Hunter said this is the sixth biennial Golden Oldies Festival that the Ugly Mongrels has competed in. They played in Argentina in 2014.
“It’s held every two years in the northern hemisphere, and then the next in the southern hemisphere, so we get to see a new part of the world,” Hunter said. He had never been to Cardiff before but looked forward to also visiting Stonehenge, Bath and London while on the rugby trip.
There are approximately 50 Australian teams in various grades competing in the festival.
Ugly Mongrel’s player Darren Campbell, who could not attend the rugby festival this year, said that the side is in a relatively low grade.
It means that every game is designed to ensure it’s a draw.
“The beauty of it is the referees make sure there are fines and penalties on the field. If a team is running away with tries they get fines,” Campbell said.
“We even have referees join our team to shift the balance of play.” The fines were shots of rum.
Hunter said the festival was about “the love of rugby and fellowship.”
“If we play division 1 we play ex-Wallabies and All Blacks, but we don’t like getting hurt.”
Campbell added; “we’d rather hurt internally than externally. The lower the grade the larger the bottle of rum for penalties.”
The festival also contributed to the Children’s Charity of Rugby, also known as Wooden Spoon.
The Ugly Mongrels raised money through their own ‘trivial’ financial penalties and paid for tackle machines for a junior rugby side in Argentina.