Tag Rugby Summer League

Have you signed up to play adult tag rugby this summer? Register your team now through work colleagues or friends! Great new sport, lots of fun, keep fit, improve your skills

Tag Rugby Summer League in Munster 3,500 expected to play this year www.tagrugby.com

Have you signed up to play adult tag rugby this summer? Register your team now through work colleagues or friends! Great new sport, lots of fun, keep fit, improve your skills, meet new people and try something different this summer. Limited places available in tag rugby leagues. Enter a team NOW! www.tagrugby.com

Cork and Limerick, Ireland, dateline Tag Rugby, the hottest mixed-gender sporting activity to be introduced to Ireland is coming to Cork & Limerick again this summer and is expected to reach new heights as participant numbers soar to an amazing 3,500 for this year’s short season beginning at the end of May and running until July. With a 30% increase of tag players from last year, it is officially the fastest growing adult team summer sport in Ireland. The official website for the 2003 series is now live www.tagrugby.com and very much active as players seek teams and teams seek players.

CORK, Highfield Rugby Football Club, Bishopstown will host the tag matches on Thursday nights starting on May 29th 2003. It is a great sporting opportunity for both men and women who want to stay fit, meet new people and participate in one of the most exciting challenges around.

There will be a Tag Rugby Launch on Wednesday 30th April in Highfield Rugby Club, Bishopstown at 6:30pm. Anybody interested in taking part this summer is invited to come along on Wednesday night! This is an excellent opportunity to try out tag rugby and see if it is a game you would like to play during the summer! You do not have to have any previous rugby experience, Tag Rugby is very similar to ‘touch rugby’ and a non-contact game. All participants will be divided up into teams and will get the opportunity to actually play tag rugby in a short blitz style format. Interested participants are to bring runners and sportswear. Tag equipment provided!

LIMERICK, Garryowen Football Club, Dooradoyle will host the tag matches on Wednesday and Thursday nights starting on May 28th 2003. It is a great sporting opportunity for both men and women who want to stay fit, meet new people and participate in one of the most exciting challenges around.

Managed by the Irish Tag Rugby Association (ITRA) under the auspices of the IRFU, there is a Mixed Social League for guys and girls. In the mixed team, there are four men and three women on a 7-a-side team. And a Men’s Super League for current rugby players from U20’s, Junior and Senior adult rugby teams.

Eddie Wigglesworth, director in the IRFU, welcomes the 2003 season as providing a real breakthrough in the sport’s popularity. “The response has been tremendous with numbers growing daily,” he says. “Two years ago we launched the series and word of mouth has generated its initial popularity. Anyone who participates can feel the buzz.”

Teams are generated through individuals, through companies and through sporting associations. People looking for members, or alternatively looking to join a team, can log on the official website (www.tagrugby.com) and place a request. Canny team leaders have been known to scour the lists of people wishing to join a team and chose the fittest candidates or alternatively the players most likely to fit into their team ethos, social or competitive.

Catherine Rossiter, referee, team leader and part time employee of ITRA, says there are many stories about why people are picked. “The best story I heard is a team leader who chose a player who worked for a brewery. The team’s practice sessions were subsequently subsidised by free beer afterwards!”

However, as Rossiter points out, there is a very serious and competitive side to the game. “People join Tag Rugby to meet new people and enjoy a social setting, but while the actual game is being played, it is very much winner takes all.”

Registration for a team costs 420 plus vat, which works out at 4.50 per night for each player. ITRA Referees, parking, changing, socialising facilities are provided. With league fixtures and results posted on the website each week. The All Ireland playoffs are held in St Mary’s on Saturday, 26th May. Last year 36 teams from across Ireland took part in the finals.

Interested tag players in Cork can contact Simon Bewley on 086 2269048 or email: info@tagrugby.com Website; www.tagrugby.com