Hundreds take part in rugby festival

Photo: Laura Wild

Swarm International Tag Rugby Festival

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More than 350 rugby players from across the globe descended on the Rakewood Sports Centre in Littleborough today (Saturday 29 May) to take part in the Rochdale Swarm International Mixed Tag Rugby League Festival.

The Swarm Festival is the largest adult Rugby League Festival in Europe, with participants flying in from Paris, Nice, Geneva, Cyprus, Dublin and Dussledorf to play against teams from Scotland, Wales, London, Widnes, Wakefield, Leeds, Dewsbury, Warrington, Bradford amongst others and an impressive eight teams from Rochdale.

This year saw a 50 percent rise in teams compared with last year.

Chairman of Rochdale Swarm, Mark Wynn said: “We are really pleased with the turnout; this is the largest festival in Europe, being held here in Rochdale. This is a real success for Rochdale and I am very proud.”

Mr Wynn added: “Tag rugby allows anybody to be involved, including those who don’t know very much about the game, or those who want to play but for one reason or another can’t get involved with rugby league or rugby union.

“We have one player who has Parkinson’s disease and another who has just recovered from stomach cancer who can’t play contact rugby so this allows them to remain involved.”

Tag Rugby is a non contact Rugby with players wearing a tag on their shorts which is pulled off rather than being tackled, the game is considered safer than both rugby league and rugby union.

The games today were opened to mixed age and mixed sex teams and the aim was to give everybody a chance to play regardless of how well they know the game.

Player and co-organiser, Emily Wynn said: “It has been an awesome day, we are just like a big family here and it is great to see so many people involved and having a great day.”

The day saw dozens of games take place across six pitches with the group stages making way to knockout rugby with six graded finals taking place.

Winners

Vase winners
Flying Horse who beat the Rochdale Swarm "A" in an all Rochdale Final

Animals in Distress Trophy Winners Queensbury MAD Taggers "A"who defeated Dewsbury Delights in an all Yorkshire Final by "Golden Point!"

Sheild winners
Littleborough Legion again winning the shield final for the second year running

Bowl winners
Bridgend Blue Heifers in an all Welsh final against another Bridgend team, the Celtic Barbarians

Hornets Rugby League Plate winners
Queensbury MAD Taggers defeated host team the Rochdale Swarm in a very close encounter.

Link4Life Cup winners and overall champions on the day Littleborough Lightning who defeated the Kiwi exiles team, the NV US.

The final was a classic affair with the sides even after normal time, the game then went into sudden death Golden Point.

The NV US all but had the game won when they broke through but failed to ground the ball correctly, Littleborough then took advantage and winner of the Derek Wynn MVP award, David Kearns avoided the Kiwi defence to take the spoils for the local side.

One last award winner was the Littleborough Lions Player of the tournament which was selected by Ireland International and local player Ged Corcoran. This year Ged didn't select one individual but an entire team, giving the award to the French who brought so much passion and commitment to the event especially have travelled several hundred miles to attend.

Tag Rugby League is incredibly popular in Australia and New Zealand where it is known as OzTag or KiwiTag. In Australia alone there over 50,000 registered players.

The Rochdale Swarm are at the forefront of promoting the game of Tag Rugby League in England.