France 2010 Stade Toulousain Collector's Sheet

After writing about the Monaco issue for the 5 Nations Tournament, I suddenly remembered that France released a collector's sheet 4 days before the Monaco issue, on 4 February, featuring one of the better rugby team in France - Stade Toulousain. Some may argue that this is not a true philatelic issue, since it is even classed as pre-personalised stamp sheet by the french post, composing of 10 stamps for local use, featuring ST players.

Monaco 2010 Centenary of 5 Nations Tournament

This is the first rugby stamp in 2010 that I know of, from Monaco, released on 8 February 2010, to commemorate 100 years of the 5 Nations Tournament, the 5 being England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland and France. It was in 1910 that France joined the 4 nations on the British Isles that gave birth to the name of the tournament. The stamp features the flags of all the 5 participating nations, and 2 players challenging for the ball in a lineout, one spotting blue jersey decorated with the gallic cockerel, that should represent France, the other in white - the crest on the jersey isn't clear, so I'll hazard a guess that he is from the English team.
The first day of issue cancellation is an outline of the design on the stamp but without the flags, only the two players challenging for the ball in a lineout, with the goal posts in the background.

New Caledonia 2009 14th Pacific Games

I purchased this New Caledonian stamp featuring Joemy, the mascot (a bat) for the 14th Pacific Islands Games to be held in 2011. Apparently the sheet border is decorated with icons of the sports featured in these games, and I was lucky to get the one that featured 7-a-side rugby!

Watching Invictus

I wanted to watch Invictus when I first found out about it early January, because the movie is linked to 3 favourites/heroes of mine - rugby, Nelson Mandela and Morgan Freeman. I only managed to watch it 10 days ago. Of course, it also reminded me of a few South African stamps in my collection, issued over the years, one for François Pienaar, another for South African celebrations featuring the Web Ellis Cup, and the set of stamps commemorating the momentous event in 1995.
This set of 3 stamps and one souvenir sheet was issued on 25 May 1995 to commemorate South Africa hosting the 3rd Rugby World Cup.
This pair of stamps was issued on 28 June 1995 to celebrate South Africa winning the Rugby World Cup!