Shelford Rugby Club hosts annual South Cambs School Sport Partnership Tag Rugby Festival

A big entry of 25 primary schools took part in the annual South Cambs School Sport Partnership Tag Rugby competitions.

With such a large number of schools taking part, the decision was taken to split the event – hosted at Shelford Rugby Club – into ‘Small Schools’ and ‘Big Schools’ tournaments.

In the Small Schools event, 16 teams of mixed Year 4/5/6 children were organised into four 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 three wins from as many matches it was the teams from Great Abington, Petersfield, Haslingfield and Foxton that won their groups and qualified for the top division.

And it proved to be an even contest as five draws were played, with the solitary victory going the way of Great Abington, who were crowned champions.

Harston & Newton, Elsworth and Girton Glebe were the winners of Divisions 2, 3 and 4 respectively, while the Spirit of the Games award also went to Harston & Newton.

The Big Schools teams were separated into cup and plate competitions, in which teams were organised into two groups with four fixtures each.

Histon & Impington Brook won all of their group matches and they repeated that in the cup final, getting the better of Trumpington Park by four tries to three. Meanwhile, Jeavons Wood saw off Swavesey 3-2 to finish third.

And there was double delight for Histon & Impington Brook as their second side ran out 3-2 winners in the final of the plate against Swavesey II, with third-placed honours going the way of both Hardwick and Monkfield Park after they played out a 5-5 draw.

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, and it was great to see lots of tries being scored with some real end-to-end games.

“We must thank Shelford Rugby Club for hosting the event and of course the team of sports leaders from Swavesey Village College who did an incredible job in refereeing 100 matches between them across the day. It’s not an easy role to take on but they grew in confidence throughout the day and officiated the matches with fairness.”