Willing effort not enough to break world record

A spectacular sight was seen in Hamilton as close to 300 hundred students and volunteers from the Fairfield community attempted to break the world record for most consecutive rugby passes.

The attempt was made by Graeme Dingle Foundation at Fairfield College earlier this month.

It was the second attempt by Graeme Dingle Foundation in less than a year at the record which was set in Wales in 2010 with 279 consecutive passes.

The participants, who were mostly students from years 9-13, stretched over half the length of the rugby field in two lines side by side.

Despite having the numbers they fell short again with the ball being dropped on all three of the attempts they were allowed. Their best attempt made it just over 20 consecutive passes.

“I think it was successful,” said Graeme Dingle Foundation Waikato regional manager Vikki Blundell. “We didn’t break the record, but we did give it a go and I’d like to encourage people to aim high and give things ago just like we have.”

Principal Richard Crawford said he was proud of the way their students stepped up.

“To the credit of everybody who was out there today they were willing to give it a try,” said Crawford.

“One of the challenges that we really need to work on with our students as a result of this is not to give those poor people who dropped the ball a hard time, but for the other students to say hey, we had a go, we didn’t achieve our goal but it’s better that we had a go than not having one.”

If there were to be a third try at the record Crawford said they would work with the students to prepare for the attempt.

“I would like there to be a third attempt, it’s just a lot of work but I wouldn’t shy away from it,” said Crawford. “You learn lessons as you go and we could do it a lot better next time in preparing our students to actually step up and we could do a lot more work with them.”