The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has welcomed the International Rugby Board (IRB) and the Rugby World Cup Organising Committee’s plans to hold an exhibition match today in support of “Tackle Hunger” at Menton -- the burial place of William Webb Ellis, rugby union's legendary inventor.

The match, which is free of charge and open to the public, pits a “Tackle Hunger” team, made up of former French national league players, against an all-star team of former international players, including:

• Glenn and Mark ELLA, Australia
• Michael JONES, New-Zealand
• Jean-Luc SADOURNY, France
• Nicolas BRUSQUE, France
• Laurent CABANNES, France
• Joel STRANSKY, South Africa
• Andrew MERTHENS, New-Zealand
• Dan LUGER, England

Gareth Rees, Antonio Da Cunha, Philippe Bernat-Salles, Yann Delaigue, Olivier Roumat, Serge Simon, Jean Michel Gonsalez, and Jean-Claude Skréla also turned out for the match.

Webb Ellis

The exhibition match coincides with the start of the knock out phase of RWC 2007 and will follow a memorial ceremony honouring William Webb Ellis, after whom the trophy presented to the World Cup winners is named.

Webb Ellis (1806-1872) is often credited with the invention of Rugby football as a schoolboy at Rugby School in England. In the latter half of 1823, he reputedly caught the ball in his arms during a soccer match and ran with it, thereby breaking the cardinal rule of soccer: the ball cannot be handled in open play.

Solidarity

Bernard Lapasset, President of the French Rugby Federation, will lay a commemorative plaque on Webb Ellis' tomb signed by the 20 Rugby World Cup team captains, to mark their commitment to rugby's traditional values of solidarity which are central to the Tackle Hunger partnership.

Tackle Hunger was launched at Rugby World Cup 2003 in Australia, where it was supported by former world cup winning captains, including Nick Farr-Jones and John Eales from Australia, and David Kirk from New Zealand.

Tsunami

As part of the partnership, the IRB staged a fundraising match at Twickenham in 2005 between teams of international players from northern and southern hemisphere. It raised more than US$3 million that was donated towards WFP’s relief and reconstruction work in areas hit by the Asian tsunami.

“The huge numbers watching this event make the Rugby World Cup an incredibly powerful platform for informing a broad audience about global hunger,” said John M. Powell, Deputy Executive Director of the World Food Programme.

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