The jobs won't be glamorous -- and there will be no free tickets handed out -- but Rugby World Cup 2011 organisers are confident people will be queueing up to enlist as volunteers for the tournament.Launched at the Petone Rugby Football Club in Lower Hutt
The jobs won't be glamorous -- and there will be no free tickets handed out -- but Rugby World Cup 2011 organisers are confident people will be queueing up to enlist as volunteers for the tournament.
Launched at the Petone Rugby Football Club in Lower Hutt yesterday with All Black great Michael Jones at the helm, the volunteer programme will start with a drive next week to recruit more than 5000 people to help out both inside and outside match venues to assist visitors with advice or guidance.
Prime Minister John Key said at the launch that the volunteers would be the "friendly, welcoming face of the tournament".
At least 85,000 overseas visitors were expected during the tournament and "about a billion eyeballs" around the world were likely to watch parts of it on TV, he said. It would be the biggest sporting event hosted here and may not be surpassed, he said.
The volunteer uniforms will be unveiled at a later date, but Mr Key said the silver fern would be prominently displayed, despite opposition last year from International Rugby Board heads which wanted a neutral look.
Rugby World Cup 2011 chief executive Martin Snedden said the roles would not be glamorous, and no free match tickets would be handed out, but volunteers would be the "shop front" of the tournament, playing a vital role in enhancing the experience of visitors and helping shape what visitors think of our country.
Rugby World Cup Minister Murray McCully said he was confident more than 5000 people would put their hands up for volunteer roles and international experiences of a similar nature had been studied and would give a steer on how the programme should be managed.
Jones said the invitation to be the ambassador for the programme was hard to turn down as the spirit of voluntary work was what kept grass-roots sports clubs ticking over.
He said Petone Rugby Football Club was a fitting place to launch the programme as it had 125 years of history, was highly decorated on the sporting front and had been a home club to past and present All Blacks. "As a player I couldn't have achieved what I did without the tireless support of so many unpaid, enthusiastic people who turned up to help me train and play, who maintained the clubrooms, who made the tea and sliced the oranges. They all made a difference."
Rugby World Cup 2011 has also recruited six former All Blacks as general ambassadors. They are Jonah Lomu, Sean Fitzpatrick, John Kirwan, David Kirk, Andrew Mehrtens and Andy Haden.
