Peyo's Cup - Honoring a fallen team mate.

Peyo Crus was a French exchange student attending Long Bay College on Auckland’s North Shore when his young life was tragically cut short at the age of 17. His parents were in the air on their way to New Zealand when this tragedy occured. A young man who had come to New Zealand to further his education and follow his rugby passion was to be a dream come true. A dream that was prematurely cut short.

To arrive to the news of your only son been fatally injured in a motor vehicle accident is unbearable. Oliver (Peyo's Father) stayed in NZ to deal with the tragedy but it was too much for Peyo's Mother to bear and grief striken immediately returned directly to France to be with family.

The college and rugby community rallied around Oliver to ensure he was comforted and assisted with arrangements to return Peyo to his home town in Chaumont, France to be laid to rest.

Given the impact that Peyo had on his friends and Rubgy 1st VX team members there was a chapter left empty.

He had a huge passion for rugby, the All Blacks, New Zealand – and above all an extreme passion for life. In memory of his life, his family and friends started #livelikepeyo and thus Peyo's Cup was born.

The idea to commemorate Peyo’s passion for life by playing a game of rugby which he loved was requested passionately by his father. So the original Long Bay 1st VX of which Peyo was a team member of and the coaches accepted the challenge to travel to Chaumont, France to play a game against Peyo's french club team. The bond that the NZ team forged with the French friends of Peyo was incredible and on a shoe string budget showed fantastic hospitality by billeting, providing food and showing the team the local sights.

Game day was more the culmination of a bonding week sharing tears and tributes. The rugby was a testiment to the passion Peyo showed for the game and the NZ team just pipped the French 15-14 to be the first holder of Peyo's Cup.

On 02 November 2019 Peyo’s Cup will be contested again at Long Bay College as the French Team challenge Peyo's kiwi team and attempt to take Peyo's Cup back to France. This time Peyos team mates from Chaumont will have a chance to see what Peyo’s animated conversations were about whenever he spoke about New Zealand and have the opportunity to #livelikepeyo!

We are fundraising to showcase New Zealand and our Kiwi culture as they showed our boys amazing hospitality in France - we would like to return the favour. Our target is to raise an additional $5,000 to add to the fundraising funds from events we have already held for this project.