Tag Rugby Success

Shelford Rugby Club recently played host to the annual South Cambs School Sport Partnership Tag Rugby Competitions.  With a big entry of 27 primary schools the event was split into a ‘Small Schools’ competition for schools of less than 120 children in Key Stage 2 and a ‘Big Schools’ competition for the district’s larger schools.

In the small school’s competition 16 teams of mixed Year 4/5/6 children were organised into 4 groups where they played each other in a round robin format before qualifying into Divisions 1-4 based on their results in the group matches. With 3 wins from 3 matches it was the teams from Coton, Petersfield, Milton & Harston & Newton that won their groups and qualified for the top division.

Teams again all played each other in 10min matches in their divisions with a high standard of play and some really competitive matches. In Division 1 it all went down to the last match between Harston & Newton & Petersfield with both teams winning their other two matches and it was a great showdown with great attacking play by both teams. In the end Harston & Newton came out as winners by 3 tries to 2 and took the title of Small Schools Champions 2024 with Petersfield going one better than last year by finishing as runners up. Division 2 winners were Great Abington whilst Petersfield 2 won Division 3 and Foxton won Division 4.

The team from Coton won the ‘Spirit of the Games Award’ for playing fairly and showing good team spirit and respect throughout the competition.

In the Big Schools competition in the afternoon there were 20 teams from 13 schools and with most schools entering two teams the competition was split into a ‘Cup’ and ‘Plate’ competition. In both competitions teams were organised into two groups where they played the other 4 teams in their group in a round robin format.

There were some fast paced and competitive matches in the round robin stages. Jeavons Wood won 3 and drew 1 match to make it through to the ‘Cup’ final where they faced The Vine with Histon & Impington Brook and Trumpington Park making the 3^rd/4^th place play off with only 1 loss each. The final was a local derby between two Cambourne schools and as expected it was extremely competitive with some great passing and good running by both teams making an entertaining and high scoring match but it was Jeavons Wood who came out as winners by 6 tries to 5 claiming them the title of Big School Champions. Last year’s winners Histon and Impington Brook finished in  3^rd place.

In the ‘Plate’ competition meanwhile The Vine 2 and Swavesey 2 made it through to the final which again was an extremely competitive and end to end game. The Vine ran out 3-2 winners and were deserved Plate Champions wining all 5 of their matches on the day. Waterbeach finished in 3^rd place having gone unbeaten throughout the competition with 4 wins and a draw.

The ‘Spirit of the Games Award’ was won by the teams from Swavesey 1 & Monkfield Park for showing good team attitude, great teamwork, and respect of the officials.

Partnership Manager, Claire McDonnell said;

“It was great to have so many schools involved today and to see so many children enjoying the game of rugby. We had over 400 children taking part and for many of them it would have been their first experience of competitive rugby.

The standard of play was really strong overall, and it was great to see lots of tries being scored with some real end to end games.

We must thank the team of 26 sports leaders from Swavesey Village College who did an incredible job in refereeing 100 matches between them across the day. Its not an easy role to take on but they grew in confidence throughout the day and officiated the matches with control and encouragement for the players.”

Small Schools Results

Big School Results