ACT Veterans Rugby Club
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| Union | Australian Rugby Union |
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| Founded | 1995 |
| Location | Canberra, Australian Capital Territory |
| Region | Australian Capital Territory and southern New South Wales |
| Ground(s) | Portsea Oval at RMC Duntroon |
| President | Rodney Eade |
| Coach(es) | Michael Mitchell, Jason Smith |
| Official website | |
| www |
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The ACT Vets are a rugby union team based in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory (ACT), whose players must be 35 years of age or older. Portsea Oval, at the Royal Military College, Duntroon is the club's home ground.
The Honorary Patron in Chief of the club is General Sir Peter Cosgrove, Governor-General of Australia. Other Honorary Patrons are Air Chief Marshal Sir Angus Houston and Vice Admiral Ray Griggs. General David Hurley, Governor of New South Wales, is the club's Supporter.
John Hillier was captain/coach of the Canberra Royals 5th Grade team in 1994 and, at the age of 34, was getting tired of running with much younger players and decided to establish a club for older players who still wanted to play rugby but did not want to be involved in grade competitions. The Evergreens, a Canberra Golden Oldies team, was only formed every three to four years to play in international Golden Oldies tournaments. Hillier felt there was a need to have a regular schedule of games to keep players involved in the sport in their post grade-competition years. With the assistance of Wests Lions and the Queanbeyan Whites, Hillier developed plans for a regular game schedule for a new veterans’ rugby team.
The ACT Veterans Rugby team played its first game at O’Connor Oval in March 1995. More than thirty players turned up for the first game together with many officers from the Royal Military College, Duntroon (RMC). It was the start of a new co-operative relationship with the RMC that has remained ever since. Given the large numbers for the first game, it was decided to form three teams playing each other over three 20 minute periods. The tradition of the three ‘halves’ has continued on. The early games also established other rules of Veterans Rugby, like no pushing in scrums but contested line-outs, rucks and mauls. This schedule of games at O’Connor Oval with RMC continued through the 1995 and 1996 seasons and in 1997, at the invitation of RMC, the ACT Veterans moved to Portsea Oval which has been the club’s home ground ever since. Hillier was president of the club for 21 years.
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