Try Tag Rugby confirm UK expansion plans

Try Tag Rugby, official partners of the RFL, are launching an expansion programme to take the game to Yorkshire.

Tag rugby league is currently popular in London and the South East, but is yet to make a significant impact in one of mainstream rugby league’s heartlands.

Five new tag rugby leagues are set to begin at the end of April in the West Yorkshire and Leeds area. There are plans in place to expand over a wider area of the county as soon as possible.

“We are delighted to announce the launch of our five new Yorkshire Leagues,” said director of Try Tag Rugby, Carl Duckels.

“With the strength of rugby league across the county it seemed an obvious first choice of location to base our first tag rugby league sessions outside of London.

“It would be great to be able to offer Tag Rugby League to every major city or town in Yorkshire but in our first year of expansion this wasn’t feasible.

“By deciding to focus on West Yorkshire and Leeds we have been able to work with a number of excellent venues to offer some fantastic playing facilities which are very accessible to surrounding local communities.

“Tag rugby eague isn’t new to Yorkshire, with a number of clubs and community groups already organising their own tag rugby league sessions.

“We hope our new leagues will provide some new opportunities for competition and complement the great work already being done by these groups to get more people involved in the game.”

The format of tag rugby league is very similar to that of the full-contact version of the sport. Rather than tackling, though, players are ‘tagged’.

Tagging is done by pulling a Velcro attached tag from the shorts of the ball carrier. This makes the game more accessible to players of different genders, skill levels and sizes.

Indeed, the main form of the game features mixed gender sides, with four male and three female players on the pitch at any one time.

There are also separate men’s and women’s forms of the game, which will run alongside the mixed matches at a number of venues.

“We have been extremely pleased with the successful partnership between Play Touch Rugby League and Try Tag Rugby, and look forward to seeing new players across Yorkshire take to the pitch and play Tag Rugby League in 2015,” Dan Parkinson, National Play Touch Rugby League Manager at the RFL , said.

Ahead of the new leagues launching, a series of five taster sessions will be taking place at the beginning of April (full details in Editor’s Notes). The new leagues begin on 27th April and registrations are now open. Teams, smaller groups and individuals can now sign up for the taster sessions and the first eight week league season at www.trytagrugby.com