Hickey launches tag rugby summer leagues
Leinster and Ireland rugby player Denis Hickey was on hand today to launch the Volvic Tag Summer Leagues in Herbert Park, Dublin.
This is the seventh year of Volvic tag rugby in Ireland and the game has grown dramatically, with more than 20,000 players taking part in 2007.
This, according to the organisers, makes it Ireland’s fastest growing recreational sport, with 48% of players having no previous sporting experience.
“We are delighted to be in our seventh year of Volvic Tag and it is just going from strength to strength across the country,” said Helen Kenny, commercial manager of the Irish Tag Rugby Association (ITRA).
“With so many people joining Volvic Tag that have never played sports before it shows that it’s really open to everyone and is a great way to stay fit and healthy during the summer in a relaxed, sociable atmosphere.”
This summer there will be 20 Volvic Tag Rugby venues across the country comprising of 115 leagues including seven new venues in Sligo, Galway, Clare and four in Dublin.
The leagues will run on week nights for nine weeks during the summer kicking off on May 21. The All-Ireland finals will be held on July 28 in St. Mary’s RFC in Dublin.
The most popular leagues throughout the country are the social leagues that have teams comprising of both men and women, with a minimum of three women having to be on the pitch at all times.
Volvic Tag is a seven-a-side non-contact sport played by men and women on a grass pitch, half the size of a normal rugby pitch.
Men score three points per try and women score one point.
This season also sees the introduction of the “accelerate-her” rule. This means that if there are four women on the pitch, a female try is worth four points, five women on the pitch means five points and so on.
