May 2023 marked the start of our IN2Touch 6 week Spring League, which didn’t just attract the local talent, but the sunshine too! Every week we had glorious weather, with DJ Adder on the tunes to get the summer vibes flowing.
We had a combination of well established touch sides, along with newly developed teams, some of which were playing touch for the first time and making their competitive debut.
- Rockcliff Adders – combined side of rockcliff social touch members and some of the Blackadders
- Rockcliff RFC – combined side of Rockcliff roses ladies and the men’s team
- Percy Park Pirates – combined side of experienced and new players
- Ashington Lionz – a newly developed side, with some of the Ashington ladies touch players and their social touch players in their first season.
- Newcastle Ravens – combined side of experienced and new players
- Tynedale Tryers – Tynedale ladies touch members along with some of their social touch/family members
One of the great things about the league is that it brought clubs together, which was a theme clearly present across all the sides. Tough rugby really is a game for everyone!
Over the 6 weeks the referees gave all the teams focus points for the evenings games, which helped to develop players understanding of the rules and saw the pace of the game get even quicker!
The main aims of the league were to:
- Develop the standard of mixed touch rugby in the North
- Bridge the gap between local social leagues and NTS/DTS Standards. 30 min games with FIT rules
- Create a platform for regular game time
Given the standard of the final week’s games we can definitely tick each of these points off!! We had two very competitive competitions going on, Pitch 1 was the cup matches between Rockcliff RFC, Percy Park Pirates and Rockcliff Adders, whilst Pitch 2 saw Ashington Lionz, Newcastle Ravens and Tynedale Tryers all battle it out for the Plate. Lots of end to end action and all in The spirit of the game.
Final standings were:
1 Rockcliff Adders (Cup Winners)
2 Percy Park Pirates (Runner’s up)
3 Rockcliff RFC
4 Ashington Lionz (Plate Winners)
5 Tynedale Tryers
6 Newcastle Ravens
We have received so much positive feedback, so massive thank you to all the teams and players for making it possible. We are so proud to have hosted such an awesome touch league, which would never have happened without the hard work of Lesley in organising it and making it possible! We are already looking forward to what’s happening next…
We’ve got some pictures from the full event on our Facebook page, feel free to take a look.
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