Tag rugby festival returns to North Berwick

The annual North Berwick tag rugby festival took place on Thursday 12 March, with more than 150 primary six pupils from the five cluster schools in the area taking part.The festival, which has been running for the last seven years in North Berwick, was attended by local schools including Law Primary, Aberlady Primary, Gullane Primary, Direlton Primary and Athelstaneford Primary.The format for the festival consisted of tag rugby matches on five pitches and different skills stations running simultaneously.While the boys were putting their rugby ability to the test in the matches, the girls were working on individual skills such as passing and catching, evasion, an introduction to tackling and kicking.There were eight girls teams and ten boys teams and the experience of playing against other schools, after a month of school taster sessions, was a highlight for all of the children involved.After a half-time break, the girls went on to play matches while the boys honed their skills at the stations.Fergus Pringle, the Development Officer for East Lothian rugby, said: “The benefits of tag rugby are that it allows the children to focus on a the main skills of the game, such as running forward into space and using footwork, basic catching and passing, offloading and working as a team. “The more passes a team makes, the more points they get for a try. Smaller teams allow each player to get more touches of the ball, ultimately leading to increased skill development.”There has previously been players progress from the festival to play for the Borders and East Lothian BT Sport Scottish Rugby Academy under-16 team. The development officers from other clubs were there to help with the festival along with a group of senior pupils from North Berwick High School, who are part of the ‘Community Sports Leaders’ group. They were working on developing their newly acquired coaching skills through working with the younger pupils.Pringle continued: “The development of rugby in East Lothian is a real team effort and everyone works together to achieve our goals of increasing participation numbers and the quality of players taking part.” “East Lothian Council employ a rugby development officer to oversee this development and festivals such as this emphasise the importance of the links with the local authority and the schools to provide great opportunities for children.”