Glowworms 3.3.2016

This lovely set of New Zealand Gloworm FDC and minisheet were sent to me very kindly by my niece Madhavi. The stamps actually glow in the dark.

Rugby World Cup 2011

France has issued a set of stamps to celebrate the 2011 Rugby World Cup to be held in November in New Zealand. Two stamps in the upper half of the mini sheet picture scenes from a rugby game; a player extracting the ball from a scrum and a player making a pass. The two other stamps picture scenes from New Zealand. However, it would have been helpful if the printers had atleast named the scenes. A search on the internet was necessary to find out that the stamp on the left was of Auckland . The stamp on the right features a view from Arthur's Pass National Park. This is a national park located on the south island which was founded in 1929. The border of the sheet pictures the logo of the Rugby World Cup 2011. In fact this is the same logo for each world cups, only the year changes. One can also see the flags of the twenty countries participating to the final part of the competition: South Africa, England, Argentina, Australia, Canada, Scotland, USA, Fiji, France, Wales, Georgia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Namibia, New Zealand, Romania, Russia, Samoa and Tonga. Russia has qualified for this last stage of the competition for the first time.

New Zealand – World Cup Rugby 9.9..2011

I am displaying here two first day covers issued by New Zealand to announce that the next Rugby World Cup in 2011 will be held at Auckland. So guys, if you are interested you better start planning now. The 2011 Rugby World Cup will be the seventh Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international rugby union competition inaugurated in 1987. At a meeting of the International Rugby Board (IRB) held in Dublin on 17 November 2005, New Zealand was selected as the host country in preference to Japan and South Africa. The event is expected to cost about NZ$310 million to run and to generate NZ$280 million in ticket sales. It will be the largest sporting event ever held in New Zealand, eclipsing the 1987 Rugby World Cup, 1990 Commonwealth Games, 1992 Cricket World Cup, 2003 America's Cup and 2005 British and Irish Lions tour to New Zealand. Around 70,000 visitors from overseas are expected to travel to New Zealand for the associated games and events.

The event will be held over seven weekends from the weekend starting 10 September and culminating the weekend starting 22 October 2011. The weekend of the final was chosen as it falls on a long weekend caused by the New Zealand public holiday of Labour Day (Monday, 24 October 2011). The final will be played in Auckland at the Eden Park.

After speculation that the number of participating teams would be reduced to 16, the IRB announced on Friday, 30 November 2007 that the 2011 tournament would again feature 20 teams. Twelve teams qualified as a result of finishing in the top three in each pool in the 2007 tournament. The remaining eight berths will be determined by regional qualifying tournaments. Madhavi gave these nice covers to me.