With RSA Poppy Day coinciding with a Vodafone Warriors home game for the first time, the club will be supporting the annual national appeal ahead of tonight’s seventh-round NRL encounter with St George Illawarra at Mount Smart Stadium (8.00pm kick-off).
Poppy Day traditionally falls on the Friday before Anzac Day and, as usual, volunteers have been out in their thousands throughout New Zealand today.
This evening a team of RSA volunteers will be stationed at Gates A, B and C at Mount Smart Stadium distributing poppies and welcoming donations in support of New Zealand’s current and ex-service personnel, including the New Zealand Police, and their families.
Tonight’s Poppy Day match is a precursor to a now well-established Anzac Day tradition for both the Vodafone Warriors and St George Illawarra. They each face tight schedules before lining up again next Wednesday for the NRL’s two Anzac Day contests.
The Vodafone Warriors fly to Melbourne of Monday to prepare for their encounter with the Storm and the Dragons will face the Sydney Roosters in Sydney.
It will be the ninth time the Vodafone Warriors and Melbourne two sides have met on April 25 but their 10th Anzac Day match overall (the Vodafone Warriors played Gold Coast in 2015 while the Storm took on Manly).
Poppy Day has been a part of the New Zealand calendar since 1922, making it one of the oldest nationwide appeals.
- The poppy is a reminder of sacrifices made both past and present. Poppies were the first flowers that grew in the battlefields of Flanders in Belgium during World War One and are a symbol of remembrance and hope.
