New Forest Primary School Sport: TagRugby

Year five and six pupils from across the district battled it out in the Tag Rugby Festival at Ballard School in a bid to be crowned Tag Rugby champions for 2007. The event managed by the Community Coach Andy Headley and the New Forest School Sport Partnership produced thrilling rugby played by over 200 boys and girls making for some high scoring games on the Ballard school field.
Year 11 pupils from Testwood Sports College who had just completed their RFU Young Rugby Organisers Award carried out all the refereeing and timekeeping. Over 100 tries were scored during the group stages, which saw Abbotswood, Pennington, Orchard and Blackfield all win their own groups with Western Downland, Ballard, Hale and Tiptoe also qualifying for the quarter-finals as runners-up.

The quarter-finals once again produced some excellent matches with Ballard producing one of the shocks of the round by knocking out the 2003 champions Blackfield.

In the semi-finals Abbotswood and Orchard were both victorious and progressed through to the final. Western Downland picked up medals for being the highest small school at the event, loosing only to Abbotswood in the semi-finals.

In the final both teams displayed some excellent talent with end-to-end rugby being played throughout the whole game. Those who stayed behind were treated to a fantastic finale to the competition. Orchard eventually ran-out champions for the third year in a row.

Peter Brailey the Partnership Development Manager noted “It was good to see so many enthusiastic young people enjoy themselves and show off their talent in this friendly and competitive competition”.

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