Introduction to the 2015 World Cup
The First African Polocrosse World Cup to be hosted at Shongweni Club by the Current WORLD CHAMPIONS from the 27 June to 13 July 2015. The first weekend of play will be played over the 3rd, 4th and 5th of July 2015 and the Semi Finals and Finals will be played over the 10th, 11th and 12th July 2015. Click on Link below to see the Durban Shongweni Club facilities.
Also follow us on our facebook page for fun facts and further information on the 2015 World Cup
Teams from UK, USA, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Zambia and Zimbabwe will be participation.
South Africa won the 2011 World Cup in England after beating Zimbabwe in the finals.
The World’s best ranked player, Jannie Steenkamp, is in the South African team. The South African Captain is Gavin Cocker, who has captained the South African team since 2004. Gavin is one of the few players in the world who has competed in all the world cups and quadrangulars held since 1997. Graham Maclarty and Travis Timm will be playing in their second world cup and both these young players are considered highly in the World Rankings.
Our SA Polocrosse community is committed to youth development and transformation. The youngest member of South African 2015 team is only 18 years old, so saddle up and get behind your team. Sponsor us to be part of the action!
From 27 June to 13 July 2015, the world’s top teams will gather to battle it out for the honour of taking home the world title during a spectacular 16 day event held at KZN’s stunning Shongweni Equestrian Centre. These teams will be determined to show the world what they have to offer and to do their home nations proud.
The 8 teams will be divided into 2 pools, consisting of 4 teams each. The teams in each pool will come head to head with one another in an elimination round to select the top 2 teams from each pool which will play for the semi-final, and final following those results.
Table of the Two Pools which will play in the 2015 World Cup
The South African polocrosse community will be supplying over 150 A grade horses for the incoming countries to use during the test matches. The Polocrosse community in South Africa, although small, have shown an enormous amount of enthusiasm and support for their team through the lending of their precious horses to form the pools. These horses will be divided into 8 “pools”, carefully selected as to create groups of equal ability and skill. These will be fairly drawn by the teams through a blind selection process. Each pool will have a designated horse coordinator who will see to the fair treatment and playing of each animal throughout the tournament.
There have been 3 previous World Cups played in the past. The first was held in 2003 in Australia, The second was held in 2007 in Australia and the third was held in 2011 in the UK, see the table below for the world rankings over the past 3 world cups.
Polocrosse World Cup 2015
About the 2015 Polocrosse World Cup
With over 10 000 guests estimated to attend the 2015 Polocrosse World Cup, this is a great event to showcase your brand. An estimated 7 000 local spectators, and over 4 000 international guests, will be watching the adrenalin filled games over the two weekends the international test matches will take place.
Shongweni is a perfect venue to highlight not only what Natal has to offer, but South Africa too. As all roads lead to Durban during the July holidays, many horse loving visitors, and holiday goers, will be visiting the sunny soil of KZN. Shongweni is located right next to the busy N3 highway where over 100 000 cars a day will be passing during this time. With your sponsorship, there is an opportunity to capture their attention too and expose a wider audience to the action packed sport of Polocrosse; and the com-panies associated with this world class event.
An array of interesting events bring even more supporters to the province during the time of the World Cup, and we will be adding the 2015 Polocrosse World Cup to this list as a “not to be missed” events. The Vodacom Durban July brings almost 60 000 visitors to Durban every year – horse lovers that would be excited to be part of our World Cup experience, not to mention the KZN Yearling Sale which would be a great opportunity to gain further brand exposure.
In addition, many international and local guests flock to KZN during this time to be part of, or watch, the international surfing competition, the Mr Price Pro in Ballito.
The Polocrosse World Cup presents a great opportunity to not only showcase your company and it’s brand, but also to show commitment to the endeavours and development of our future sportsmen and women in South Africa.
Proposed Schedule of events
- Sunday, 28 June 2015Horse Draw
Each team is allocated a carefully selected pool of horses for use during the tournament. The pre-selected pools are drawn out of a hat for each participating team.Welcoming dinner
An official welcoming ceremony and formal dinner is held as an opening to the two week World Cup. Here, each team is formally presented and players are able to socialise with op-ponents, sponsors and officials. - Monday, 29 June 2015 – Thursday, 2 July 2015– Practice and horse coordination
During the week leading up to the World Cup test matches, teams are able to ride the horses in their pool in order to selected horse and rider combination, as well as horse positions. Each horse pool is allocated a horse co-ordinator who oversee the training sessions, and ensures each horse is handled correctly. - Friday, 3 July 2015 – Sunday, 5 July 2014–First round test matches
The teams are divided into 2 pools. During the first weekend, test matches will be played within the pools to determine the top 4 teams that will play for the first to fourth positions. - Monday, 6 July 2015 – Thursday, 9 July 2015 – Practice and horse coordination
- Friday, 10 July 2015 – Saturday 11th July 2015–Semi Final test matches
Games are played to determine the top fourth spots in the World Cups ranking. - Sunday, 12 July 2015 Finals games to determine the top four positions
Prize Giving
Closing function and departure