Dental practitioners across Sydney composed of an oral health educator, a dental hygienist, a dental technician and two dentists reached out for the Philippine National Rugby League (PNRL) Tamaraws and generously provided professionally-fitted mouthguards at no cost.
This is in line with the Play Well Health program for the Tamaraws organised and coordinated by the team’s national anthem singer Jinky Marsh who happened to be an oral health educator and a registered dental hygienist both in private and public sector (NSW Health Centre for Education and Research on Ageing).
The materials used for the mouthguard production were solicited after the international test match of the Tamaraws versus Serbia in February 2016 in which the Tamaraws won, 12:8 at the Cabramatta Rugby League Club.
The mouth impressions were taken the following year when the PNRL Tamaraws arrived on the 1st of February 2017 from New Zealand and various states. The production of mouthguards took three days.
The tailored-made mouthguards were fitted and distributed on the night of the international test match of the Tamaraws versus Malta on the 4th February 2017 at the same club venue.
The dental clinics that supported the Play Well Health program for the Tamaraws through the provision of mouth guard materials included Kingsway Dental (Pittwater), 2016 Hornsby Council Local Business Finalist Hills Dental Design (Pennant Hills), St Leonards Dental Centre (St Leonards) and Monavale Dental Dentre (Monavale).
Meanwhile, the dental practitioners who generously donated their skills and time in taking good mouth impressions, pouring of the models, vacuum forming technique to form mouthguards, trimming, polishing and fitting of mouthguards were newly-graduate dentists Drs Andrew Ta and Austin Wu (referred by Oral Health Therapist Juliette Tran), Dental Hygienist Jinky Marsh and resident dental technician of Kingway Dental, Bill Brundrit.
“Wearing mouthguards is a must for rugby league players. It is for their protection and safety.”, dental technician Brundrit commented.
Brundrit who mainly produced the mouthguards has forty-two years experience as a dental technician and was trained both in London and Sydney.
“Some of the boys had tears in our eyes during the singing of the national anthem,” remarked Tamaraw Wing player and Play Well Health program mouthguard recipient Richie Goodwin.
“The boys and the Board really appreciate the mouthguards. It was the best mouthguard I have ever worn, hands down,” Goodwin added.
The PNRL was established in January 2012. The PNRL is composed of four teams, namely the national team Tamaraws (formerly called the Carabaos), the international-test reserves Admirals XIII, Juniors U17 and PERLAS Women squad. It has about 200 members to date and growing. Each team has 17 member players and each player is of Filipino heritage.
Tamaraw is an endemic Philippine bovine mostly found in the island of Mindoro.
PNRL chose Tamaraw as its national team’s icon being known to be aggressive and stoically strong defender of its territory.
From PNRL’s inception, the national team historically won Cabramatta International 9’s tournament and bagged the inaugural Asian Cup tournament in Thailand with an 86-0 whitewash of Thailand at the Royal Thai Police Stadium in Bangkok in 2012.
The PNRL Tamaraws’ primary objective is to gain entry into the 2017 Rugby League World Cup. There are about eight PNRL Tamaraws with National Rugby League experience.
The PNRL Tamaraws are headed by coach Arwin Marcus with Paul Sheedy as Vice President.
The Play Well Health Program for the PNRL continues.
PNRL can be contacted via www.pnrl.com.au and support and sponsorships for the league headgears will be much appreciated.
