The new official ball of the Cook Islands Rugby League made its debut on Thursday night (Cook Islands time) during the touring Cook Islands under-13 rugby league team’s match against the Kurnell Stingrays in Australia.

The Cook Islands joins the USA in choosing The Messenger Churchill Group (MC Group) as the official suppliers of rugby league balls for their domestic and international competitions. 

Jason McLean of MCG is excited with the partnership.

In a statement, McLean said: “We are proud to partner with Cook Islands Rugby League with the debut of the Churchill International Football, MCG intends to be the partner of choice for high quality affordable footballs worldwide.”

The Messenger-Churchill Group (MCG) is a consortium that partners with some of the most famous families of rugby league and union and is dedicated to bringing high quality balls to grassroots football. 

Named after players like Dally Messenger, Clive Churchill and the Ella’s, MCG balls are made to exacting standards by the world’s leading manufacturer of elite footballs, with a new superior Digi-Grip surface. 

“The new ball is fantastic” said Cook Islands rugby league legend and U13 coach Kevin Iro, “after using the new Churchill International ball it is the only ball anyone wants to train with, it holds its grip and shape perfectly.”

Making the new rugby league ball even more affordable is a new sponsorship deal with TVATI, covering the full cost of 160 official balls for training balls and match balls for all grades from juniors to international every year for the next three years. 

Cook Islands Rugby League president Charles Carlson said the support was timely.

“We struggle with getting a reliable supply of quality balls. The ones we used were poor quality, too expensive, or not available on the Island.  This new ball and sponsorship will make a huge difference to our rugby league community,” Carlson said.

Cook Islander Dr Graham Matheson was inspired to develop TVATI by the injuries he and other players got while playing rugby union and league growing up in the Cook Islands.

TVATI is the outcome of seeing the use of traditional knowledge to treat all types of injuries. It is a patented Cook Islands natural product, resulting from over two decades of research and development into Te Varakau Ati. This Maori medicine for bone and soft tissue injuries was developed in partnership with the Koutu Nui and Surgical and Orthopaedic Research Laboratories in Sydney.

Grown and manufactured in the Cook Islands, this product is extracted, refined, standardised and exported from the Cook Islands Medical Research and Development laboratory on Rarotonga. After market testing overseas, TVATI products are ready to officially launch internationally next month. 

“It is a privilege to support Cook Islands Rugby League, and begin to give back to the Cook Islands communities that inspired TVATI development,” said Dr Matheson.

In a family connection twist, not only did Dr Matheson used to represent the Cook Islands, and his TVATI sponsored the balls, but his son, Hugh Matheson, played for the Kurnell Stingrays against the Cook Islands U13 team in the debut game of the new ball. Hugh’s grandfather, NSW cricket legend Stephen “Jack” Small, is a co-founder of MCG, and personally delivered the official footballs for the game.