Pakis Corner: ABOUT PAKIS CORNER

PAKIS CORNER CELEBRATES 10 YEARS!

Pakis Corner was invented in the year 2000 when creator Dallen Stanford earned his nickname whilst captaining the University of Cape Town (UCT) u21 rugby side to the Eastern Cape. Doctor Neil 'the boomslang' Barnard is credited with the phrase, and so began the 'best night of your life'. The Corner is famous for tackling Springbok rugby coach Nic Mallet - who happened to be a guest speaker at a UCT sports function - and ended up actually buying him a drink for the outrageous hit!

Pakis Corner hit the world-wide-web via a local UCT sport's website and soon after secured a massive sponsorship contract with Cape to Rio. The student market exploded onto the scene, and this was a very successful period for Pakis Corner, whilst completing his degree in Marketing.

After spending his first 25 years in Cape Town South Africa, Dallen visited California on a 6 month holiday, and played some rugby for the Oxy Olde Boys. Following that FOX Sports World producers Patrick Guthrie and Matt Brown along with Oxy Tigers coach James Walker ensured Dallen gain an additional 18-month work visa for the States.

The rest is history - as they say - when Dallen met the beautiful Verity Branco. In November 2005 they got married on Malibu beach, with another ceremony taking place at Rhodes Memorial on Table Mountain in Cape Town a year later.

Dallen subsequently made the USA 7s side - playing in 54 matches through his career spanning from 2006 to 2009, including 13 IRB World Series tournaments. He writes weekly rugby articles (mostly about sevens rugby) for UR7s.com and RugbyZone. Dallen has also been published in the book "Rugby For Dummies - The official guide to rugby in North America" as well as Rugby Magazine for the preview to the upcoming 2010 Las Vegas IRB Sevens tournament.

After three years in California, Pakis Corner is currently based in Austin Texas - where Verity is completing her Masters in Acting and Theatre gaining a full scholarship to the University of Texas at Austin (UT). When not involved with sports journalism, Dallen works for Future Trends as a business developer in the IT world, and has a laugh with the Foodie Girls...

Pakis Corner (far right) captains Belmont Shore during the Championship Cup 7s Series and will return to Las Vegas for the finals on February 12 & 13, 2010.