Rugby rivals push nude calendars

Gloucester RFU's calendar was the idea of flanker Andy Hazell

Competition between rugby clubs has taken on a new twist, with rivalry not on the pitch, but over nude calendars.

Guinness Premiership side Gloucester stripped off to mark the benefit year of flanker Andy Hazell and raise money for Breakthrough Breast Cancer.

Village team Westbury-on-Severn went naked to raise funds for new changing facilities and a special needs school.

The Gloucester squad has taken on a "pumping iron" theme and the Westbury team has gone for more natural poses.

The Gloucester rugby stars are used to being in the limelight and have posed pin-up style, honed and oiled.

The black and white shots show the players naked or near-naked, some with strategically-placed rugby balls to preserve their modesty.

Hazell said his team mates did not need much convincing to take their clothes off for charity.

"It's just a bit of fun and we thought it would be good to do something like this," he said.

"The boys are always willing to take their clothes off and pose around, so it seemed a logical thing to do really."

Other players baring all include England's Mike Tindall and Tongan winger Lesley Vainikolo.

The Westbury team went for more natural poses in their calendar

By contrast, the Westbury-on-Severn players have chosen a more un-staged theme.

Club Secretary, Sam Boulton, said: "The poses are very natural, all based upon images you would see in a game, so you have for example a line-out and a scrum.

"I've never heard a bunch of macho rugby players laugh so much.

"It was quite easy to persuade them, particularly when I said we would do natural poses, not staged like some of the calendars you see."

Nude charity calendars have become a growing form of fund-raising following a calendar produced by a Women's Institute group from a Yorkshire in the late 90s, whose story inspired the film Calendar Girls.

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