İstanbul, 4 Şubat 2010

Türkiye Ragbi Federasyonu Başkanı Sayın Şahin KÖMÜRCÜ’ye Açık Mektup

Sayın Başkan KÖMÜRCÜ,

Öncelikle size kendimi tanıtıp, bu mektubu ne sebeple kaleme aldığımı belirtmek isterim: Benim adım Yannick HEBERT, 34 yaşında bir Fransız vatandaşıyım. Bir Türkiye vatandaşı ile evliyim ve şu anda İstanbul’da oturuyorum. 10 yaşımdan beri Fransa’da Rugby oynuyorum ve Ekim 2009’da İstanbul’a taşındığımda Ottoman Rugby Klübü’ne katıldım.

1 Şubat 2010 tarihinde Samsum’daki maçta yaşanan olaylardan haberiniz vardır, ve sanıyorum ulusal television kanalları, gazeteler ve internetten olayları takip etme fırsatınız olmuştur. Samsun ve İstanbul Ottoman’lar arasındaki maç, Samsun yedek kulübesinden bir oyuncunun sahaya çıkıp şiddet içeren hareketlerle bana saldırması sebebiyle durduruldu ve tamamlanamadı.

Bu talihsiz olayda mağdur kişi olarak medyadaki mütakip haberleri de göz önünde bulundurup, size bu açık mektubu yazmaya ve görüşlerimi Türkiye’deki Ragbi klüplerine ve konuyu izleyen medya mensuplarına iletmeye karar verdim.

Bu saldırı sonunca üç gün Samsun Devlet Hastanesi’nde yatmak ve yoğun bir göz tedavisi görmek zorunda kaldım. Aynı zamanda kaşıma üç dikiş atıldı. Göz tedavim devam ediyor, ve hem gözümün durumu hem de olası travma sonrası komplikasyonlar için hala doktor gözetimindeyim.

Yerel polise olayla ilgili şikayette bulundum ve bir avukat davayı takip etmekte. Doğal olarak Federasyon’dan söz konusu oyuncuya karşı gerekli cezayı vermesini bekliyorum. Ayrıca bu olayın emsal teşkil edeceğini ve ilgili yönetmeliklerde gerekli değişikliklerin yapılarak tekrarlanmamasının sağlanacağını umuyorum.

Sizin de bildiğiniz gibi bu tür bir olay Samsun’da ilk kez yaşanmıyor. Öte yandan Samsun klübünün çok ağır bir ceza almayacağını umuyorum. Samsun takımında iyi niyetli ve Türkiye’de Ragbinin gelişmesi için çalışan bir çok insan var. Takımı ligden çıkarmak bu sorunun çözümü olmaz diye düsünüyorum.

Maalesef hakemlerimiz sahayı kontrol altında tutabilecek ve maçın güvenli koşullarda oynanmasını sağlayacak donanım ve deneyime sahip değiller. Ayrıca oyuncuların çoğu yeni oldukları için kuralları iyi bilmiyorlar ve antrenörlerin hem çocuklara hem yetişkinlere bu sporu kuralları çerçevesinde öğretecek materyallere ihtiyacı var. Geçtiğimiz pazar yaşanan olay Ragbi ruhu ve kuralları daha iyi bilinse ve daha iyi hakemlik yapılsa önlenebilirdi diye düşünüyorum.

Bu sorunun çözümü IRB’ye katılım ile sağlanabilir görüşündeyim. Böylece profesyonel hakemlik ve antrenorlük eğitimlerine (ve bir çok başka avantaj) erişim sağlanır ve halihazırda eksik olan materyaller temin edilebilir. Ancak, sizin de bildiğimiz gibi bunun ilk adımı bir Ragbi Federasyonu kurmak.

Geçtiğimiz on yıl içerisinde Yunanistan, Gürcistan, Ukrayna, Portekiz, İspanya ve Afrika’da bir çok ülke kendi Ragbi federasyonlarını oluşturdular ve resmi uluslararası turnuvalarda oynuyorlar. Türkiye’nin bu uluslararası arenada temsil edilmemesi bir kayıp diye düşünüyorum. Ayrıca Türkiye’deki gençlerin de ülkelerini böyle prestijli uluslararası Ragbi müsabakalarında temsil etme onurundan mahrum kalmaları üzücü bir durum.

Geçen haftaki olayların getirdiği olumsuz yankıları Türkiye’de Ragbi sporunun desteklenmesi ve yaygınlaşması için bir fırsata çevirmek sizin elinizde. Medya aracılığı ile bütün ülkeye ve Ragbi camiasına Türkiye’de bu sporun bu tür şiddet olayları ile anılmayacağını ve Türkiye’yi uluslararası Ragbi camiasında ses getirecek bir konuma getirmekteki kararlılığınızı gösterebilirsiniz.

Türkiye’deki Ragbi camiası olarak sizin bu olayın olumsuz etkilerini tersine çevirmek için göstereceğiniz çabaya inanıyor ve güveniyoruz. Bu konuda gerekli anlayış ve iyi niyeti göstererek bekleğimiz adımları atacağınızı umuyoruz.

En derin saygılarım ve sportmence bir dayaşıma ile,

Yannick HEBERT

PS: Facebook group: “Türkiye’de Rugby Federasyonu kurulması için Talep”

Pumas on tour

The Bakirkoy v Pumas game began with an early start for most of the team, with the flight to Istanbul taking off at 8am.

The planning for the trip had been fraught with problems, heavy snow in Istanbul on Thursday had been a major concern; a lack of Props being available until the last minute; no accommodation being booked by the opposition; frantically completed medicals to register the players; the opposition were insisting on a 12.00 kick-off and the hat to be awarded for ass of the day had gone missing.

On the positive side, a meeting with Pegasus airlines had resulted in discounted flight prices.

However, 18 set off from Ercan to be met by Ozzy flying in from Izmir, Dinchan coming from Ankara and Yavuz, Emre and Hakan, already in Istanbul, at Sabiha Gocken airport at 9.45am.

The Bakirkoy organised coach eventually turned up at 11.15am and they were expecting a kick-off at noon! Despite knowing they were collecting 24 rugby players and their kit, they sent a small mini-bus, barely big enough to shoe-horn 18 people in, fortunately Yavuz had his car!

During the wait, Martin, who had found a seat behind a taxi stall was approached by a member of the public for a taxi, to which he replied: “taxi yok!” Understandable he could be mistaken for a Turkish taxi driver wouldn’t you say!

The Pumas refused to go straight to play, insisting that they required something to eat and a warm-up before playing. The answer from Bakirkoy was “ok but the ambulance we booked leaves at 2pm.”

In the end, kick off was at 1.30pm, with no ambulance having turned up at all. After a few phone calls it was established that they were busy having lunch and had then attended another emergency. They finally turned up 10 minutes before the end of the game at 2.50pm! Fortunately they had not been required.

On arrival at the ground it became apparent that Bakirkoy were not very prepared at all. They had no rugby balls, luckily the Pumas had brought a couple to practice with them; there was no padding around the posts, the lines were being done as the Pumas arrived and none too straight and no water was provided. Fortunately the team manager had the foresight to purchase some water at the Hyper-market near the ground when he’d bought the after-match beers! The opposition’s water was kept in one of their cars until half time.

So far not much of a rugby spirit going on with the Bakirkoy boys! One of which appeared to be auditioning for Phantom of the Opera judging by the mask he was wearing to protect his broken nose. A first on a rugby pitch that any of us had encountered. Was it even legal?

Despite a scrappy start to the game, the Pumas took the lead 3-0 with a penalty kicked by Can. This was followed by a try from Dinchan and two tries by Batu, the second of which was converted by Dinchan, taking the score to 20-0 at half time.

In the second half Batu got his hat trick try which was converted. Can got sent off for high tackling; a Bakirkoy player got sent off for giving Sam a Chinese burn (although didn’t seem to understand the concept of the sin bin as he came straight back on again! Kev the ref soon put him right!) There wo further tries by Dinchan and Seb followed by a penalty try which took the final score to 44-0.

And there was a first for Ozzy, he managed not to get sent off!

The Pumas were good in the rucks, despite a Bakirkoy player continually trying to pull them down. Martin eventually got fed up with it and there’s no doubt that player will be nursing quite a few stud marks for a while! The backs looked good when they got the ball and there was no doubt that the Pumas were the stronger side and it was very apparent they understood more of the rules than their opposing side.

“We are pleased with the result and that we didn’t have any points scored against us,” said Sam, team captain. “Although it was scrappy game from both sides, our experience paid dividends. The backs had a good game and the forwards played well, it was a good result all in all, but there is still room for improvement.”

After the game and an hour’s drive, the team arrived at the Hush Hostel in Kadikoy, where they were to be entertained by the new team in Istanbul, Khalkedon, run by previous Pumas chairperson Naci.

The night’s entertainment included the award of man of the match to Batu and the jester’s hat for his comments on the field to Martin, a round of Yogi Bear led by Sam, a convincing victory in the boat race by the Pumas, gate-crashing a wedding party, a fight and copious amounts of alcohol!

Mirunalan, who somehow landed a double bed, ended up sharing it with an extremely drunk ex-Puma player, after he had been convinced not to drive.

Thanks to Hakan, a coach was organised to pick up the weary team at 6am for the return journey, which was pretty uneventful.

Tour comments:

Michael – what seat number are you?

Sam – 28F

Michael – oh great I’m, 28 too, I must be behind you.

Martin – is Steve driving the mini bus?

Claire - No Martin, they drive on the other side of the road in Turkey

Steve on going to the toilets in MacDonalds – am I a Bay or a Bayan? How long have you lived in Cyprus Steve?

On the pitch:

Martin with his fists up after studding a Bakirkoy player for pulling down the rucks, who then decided to have a go back:  “Don’t touch me boy!”

Sam after an attempted Chinese burn on his leg and attacking one of the opposition number 12s – there were two for some reason: “You know what you */!*@#!* did!”

Fortunately the ref saw what he had done and the Bakikoy player got sin binned.

On the walk returning to the hostel after the night out:

Jon: 2TL for a gay? Hakan, why are they selling gays for 2TL.

Hakan: Jon that’s çay!

Martin at the airport to come home putting his luggage down – Claire, can I leave this here in charge of you?

And finally, the story of Kevin and the mystery Germans:

After struggling to sleep due the snoring of Steve (it couldn’t have been me I didn’t sleep at all!), Kevin decided he would try sleeping in the hostel lounge. Armed with his blankets, he curled up on a settee until being woken by some mystery Germans. Asked how he knew they were Germans he replied they had asked him in a German accent if they had woken him.

“One of them had a flat hat on his head too.”

Kevin decided to return to his room, which he shared with Sam, Steve, Jon, Seb and Joe, at 4am, where all five were apparently snoring in harmony.

Since the Pumas had occupied the entire hostel and the front door was locked, no one can understand where these Germans appeared from at 4am, however, Kevin will not have it that he dreamt the whole thing and continues to maintain they were for real!

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Pumas Valentine's Ball

Pumas training starts again on Tuesday January 5 at the Alsancak Stadium, 7pm - Everyone welcome.

Pumas training sessions are on Tuesday 7pm - 9pm.

Saturdays 2pm - 4pm. For more information contact George on 0533 883 3757

Pumas Academy is on Saturdays 12 - 2pm. All age groups welcome. For more information contact Seb 0533 845 0569