On Saturday 11 June Sport Imperial hosted a day of “Fun in the Sun” with a friendly Touch Rugby tournament in Hyde Park.

Fun in the Sun

On Saturday 11 June Sport Imperial hosted a day of  “Fun in the Sun” with a friendly Touch Rugby tournament in Hyde Park. 

11 teams turned up on the day to take part in the tournament including both staff and students.  The aim of the day was to increase sports participation by introducing people to a new sport.  Touch Rugby is a fast moving, minimal contact evasive game played by both men and women.  The game is simple to learn and lots of fun – with no need to worry about getting hurt, making it suitable for mixed teams and people of varying abilities and experience. Sport Imperial also aimed to increase interest in Rugby as a whole, particularly rugby league and women’s rugby. 

The day began at 11am, with a rundown of the basic rules of the game, as many had not  played before. The day was run by the RFL (Rugby Football League) who devised the match schedule and provided the referees. The tournament started a little later than originally planned due to Hyde Park being overrun by minis football, however this gave the teams chance to practice!

The tournament was split up into 3 pools over 3 pitches, which meant each team had at least 3 matches to play.  It was fantastic to see everyone enjoying themselves so much and really getting involved no matter what their skill level.  The top of each pool and the top runner up went through to the semi finals, with ‘Jsx10 ‘ playing ‘Team Spas’ and ‘NS’ taking on the ‘Wiik Kids’.  Both matches were great games and you could already see improvements from the pool stages. It seemed however, that those teams who didn’t make it to the final hadn’t had enough of the game yet! They decided to play several friendly matches against each other, proving just how much of a success the day was.

The crowds built and the addition of the Household Cavalry and the RAF flypast made the build up to the final quite an event.  ‘NS’ were set to play ‘Jsx10’ in the final (England v Ireland), both playing for the major prize of tickets to a Harlequins RL home match. The match was well fought but ‘NS’ was just too strong, winning by a comfortable margin.  Showing true sportsmanship, the winners gave up their prize to ‘Jsx10’ due to other commitments.

It was a fantastic day enjoyed by everyone, with many teams asking for many more of these competitions in the future!

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