Shelford Rugby Club hosts South Cambs School Sport Partnership tag rugby competitions at The Davey Field

Shelford Rugby Club played host to last week’s annual South Cambs School Sport Partnership tag rugby competitions.

With a big entry of 27 primary schools, the event at The Davey Field was split into a ‘small schools’ competition for schools of less than 120 children in Key Stage 2 and a ‘big schools’ tournament for the district’s larger schools.

In the small schools’ section, 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.

And with three wins from three matches, it was the teams from Coton, Petersfield, Milton and Harston & Newton that won their groups and qualified for the top division.

Division 1 went down to the last match between Harston & Newton and Petersfield, with both teams having won their other two matches.

It proved to be a keenly fought contest between the two which eventually Harston & Newton won by three tries to two.

The Division 2 winners were Great Abington, while Petersfield II won Division 3 and Foxton triumphed in Division 4. The team from Coton won the Spirit of the Games Award for showing good team spirit and respect throughout the competition.

With the majority of the schools in the big schools competition entering two teams, the decision was taken to split that into cup and plate formats. In both competitions teams were organised into two groups where they played the other four teams in their group in a round robin format.

Jeavons Wood won three and drew one match to make it through to the cup final, where they faced The Vine, with Histon & Impington Brook and Trumpington Park making the third and fourth place play-off with only one loss each.

The final was a local derby between two Cambourne schools, neither of whom wanted to give the other an inch but it eventually was Jeavons Wood who came out as winners 6-5 at the expense of The Vine. Last year’s winners Histon and Impington Brook finished in third place.

Meanwhile, In the plate, Swavesey II and The Vine II battled it out in a final that was won 3-2 by the latter, who came out on top in all five matches on the day.

Waterbeach finished in third spot having gone unbeaten throughout the competition with four wins and a draw, with the Spirit of the Games Award was shared by Swavesey and Monkfield Park.

South Cambs School 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 overall, 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 26 sports leaders from Swavesey Village College who did an incredible job in refereeing 100 matches between them across the day. Its not an easy role to take on but they grew in confidence throughout the day and officiated the matches with control and encouragement for the players.”