Wetherby Bulldogs hosted the qualifying rounds of the Leeds city tag tournament for the Leeds East Sports Partnership on Wednesday with staff from the Leeds Rhinos Foundation working alongside School Games Organiser Shaun Mulhern to deliver the tournament for the 18 school teams taking part.
The tournament for boys and girls was one of the qualifying rounds that will run across the city in partnership with Sainsbury’s Schools Games, that will allow teams to progress to the City Wide Tag Tournament Finals based at the John Charles Centre for Sport in May.
The third festival in the programme at the home of the Wetherby Bulldogs was ran by the Leeds Rhinos Foundation staff, with the help of academy players Ben Brady, Jack Wray, Josh Jordan-Roberts, George Milton and Ben Frankland who helped to support the the tournament with some refereeing and coaching.
The recently qualified RFL coaches worked alongside the Leeds Rhinos foundation staff as they delivered a coaching carousel in the morning to teach the school children the rules and how to play tag rugby, with the festival taking place in the afternoon.
All the schools showed great enthusiasm and the children displayed some fantastic skills throughout the day in what has been a high standard of primary school rugby across the three qualifying festivals so far.
The matches in the afternoon were played in great spirit with the top 4 teams at the end of the day qualifying for the city finals with the results typically going right down to the last round of fixtures.
St Benedicts, Primrose Lane, Thorpe Arch and Strawberry Fields have progressed to the City Wide Tag Tournament Final joining the teams progressing from the festivals at North Leeds Leopards ARLFC and Guiseley Rangers at the of March.
Leeds Rhinos Community Manager; Jonny Wainhouse commented:
“We weren't blessed by the weather at this full day event but the children seem to hold their own in tough conditions. I am really impressed with how staff from the schools managed their children which created a positive environment for the children to enjoy them self in cold, wet and extremely windy conditions!
"We would like to say a massive thank you to the teachers who brought the children, Wetherby Bulldogs for hosting the event and also Leeds Rhinos Academy players who spent the entire day supporting the event. One last thank you to Shaun Mulhern who went out of his way to engage as many schools as possible into this event."
If you are interested in playing rugby league at the well established Wetherby Bulldogs Rugby League Club at their fantastic facility please contact:
Vicky Peel
07736147479
vickypeel@gmail.com