ANZAC Day 2008

29 April 2008
Army Rugby team visits Villers-Bretonneux

Once again the diggers from the Australian Army stand at the Somme in France, only this time it’s at the first ever ANZAC Day Dawn Service at the Australian National Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux.

The ceremony left the members of the Army Rugby Team with a heightened degree of respect and sadness for those who served in times of conflict.

The Army Rugby Team looked upon this moving ceremony as a way to reinforce the core values of the Australian Army.

ANZAC Day on April 25th 2008 commemorates the 90th Anniversary of the Battle that liberated the small French provincial town of Villers-Bretonneux. The sacrifices made by those Australian diggers are honoured on this day by a contingent of the Royal Australian Army Rugby Team.

Villers-Bretonneux was the most important of a series of battles fought by Australians that resisted German attacks on the Somme in the first half of 1918.