Another successful ORFC Tag Festival

Photos provided by Orkney Photographic

Friday the 1st of May saw yet another successful Tag Rugby Festival for Orkney Rugby Football Club, this year in association with Active Schools. 

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This year, 490 school children from all over Orkney laced their boots ready for another shot at being the next Stuart Hogg. The day started in good spirits as players readied themselves at the Pickaquoy Centre to then be greeted by glorious sunshine for the rest of the event. Teams quickly made their way to their designated pitches to be greeted by their assigned pitch manager and referee. At 11:00am, the games commenced, with fantastic rugby spirit on show across every pitch. The Festival offered newly created teams the chance to build their confidence and enjoy the game, while atop the field, the Tournament for competitive play battled on with some very close results. As lunch fast approached, smiles and sun tans were visible all-round. With a slight change to proceedings this year, 3 awards were on display for the budding school teams as the short lunch break began to finish – first off was the Spirit of Rugby award, a signed matchball; initialled by the 2015 Scotland team: awarded to the Festival team/school showing the best rugby spirit. The ORFC Tournament Winners Cup for the competitive fixture finale and the ORFC Community Rugby Project Contribution Award for the school showing the most dedication to rugby throughout the year.

 

As the day came to a close, the hard decision of awarding trophies had arrived. 

 

First awarded, the ORFC Community Rugby Project Contribution Award went to Rousay Primary for their dedication not only to their tag rugby throughout the year but also in supporting the club with a number of regular attending members.

 

The Spirit of Rugby Award, presented by Michael Swanney of Active Schools went to Stromness Primary – after a very tough decision, Stromness showed fantastic rugby spirit on the day, offering encouragement to their opposition, dedication and even boasting the only all-girl team the Festival has seen.

When asked about the day, Michael went on to say ‘Active Schools really enjoy working in partnership with all the schools across Orkney and the SRU / ORFC in bringing together the annual tag rugby festival. We look forward to working closer with ORFC to further develop more activity and rugby in schools throughout Orkney’.

 

The final award, The ORFC Tournament Winners Cup was awarded to St. Andrews after a very hard fought round. St. Andrews fielding two teams in the final round, managed to overcome their opposition by a very close margin.

With the festival tying up - Mark Sinclair, ORFC and Scottish Rugby Community Coach said ‘On the whole it was a fantastic day. It's always great to see so many kids having such a good time. All of the helpers showed great enthusiasm and did very well within roles. Hopefully we continue to see their support for future events. Thanks to all the schools that were involved in the Tag Festival. Without your contribution, we would be unable to partake in such events. Also a big well done to new Development Officer Tom Hughes who organised the event and made it run smoothly’.

 

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A big thank you to all of the schools involved, Active Schools for the considerable contribution and all of our Volunteers for a fantastic festival. Everyone involved did a fantastic job and made a huge impact to the success of the day. Well done to all, I know I am already looking forward to the next one! – Tom.