I attended as a referee the 3rd Annual Sparkling Tag Rugby Tournament for primary schools across the Andover and Test Valley area.  Over 380 boys and girls attended, split as 12 different schools for Years 3 & 4 competition, and 18 different schools for Years 5 & 6.

The event is sponsored by Newcotech and is organised by Andover RFC, Testway 7s, Mountbatten Schools Sports Partnership and the Police. It was also supported this year by students from Andover and Sparsholt College and a local Year 10 Winton School pupil gained valuable experience taking part as a Sports Leader. The Community department at London Irish were also on hand to provide advice to the young players and, as ever, ‘Digger’ the Irish Wolfhound mascot of London Irish was an extremely popular supporter!

London Irish’s ‘Digger’ the Irish Wolfhound mascot meeting the players!!

Tired out referee’s enjoying the Awards after a great day!

85 games of TAG rugby were played and there were some very impressive displays of skill both in the tagging and try scoring. With so many competitors, players and supporters really appreciated tracking their positions on white boards and video and everyone praised the standard of refereeing and fair play which made the event great fun and enjoyable for all. Winners of more than one stage of the competition had to be decided on fair play points because of equal final scores.

There were two competitions – for Years 5/6 and Years 3/4. Teams competed in A, B, C and D pools and then went through to cup, plate and bowl matches depending on their positions in the pool. A fair play trophy plus a player of each pool award were also presented at the end of the day.