13 February 2008
Salford City Reds, Countryside Properties and Contour Homes held the Lower Broughton Tag Rugby Tournament on Friday 8th February at Salford University’s Castle Irwell sports fields, to raise awareness of the region’s newest Rugby League squad, the New Broughton Rangers.
The fast paced one-day tournament was held under the watchful eye of Salford City Reds Community Development Officer and New Broughton Rangers coach Ben Cramant, with teams from Brentnall, St. George’s, St. John’s and St. Peter’s and Paul’s secondary schools participating. The mascot of the Salford City Reds, Ignito, also made an appearance, to help cheer the players along with a bit of his trademark brand of mischievousness!
The “Tag Rugby” played at the tournament is a non-contact version of the team game in which each player wears a belt that has two velcro tags attached to it. The mode of play is similar to Rugby League, with attacking players attempting to dodge, evade and pass a rugby ball while defenders attempt to prevent them scoring by "Tagging" - pulling a velcro attached Tag from the ball carrier.
The tournament ended with the team from St. John’s school winning free family tickets to watch Salford City Reds versus Oldham at The Willows.
Ben Cramant, of the Salford City Reds, who led the tournament, commented: “It was great to see the kids of the area come out in force to support their new Rugby League team. We’ve spotted quite a bit of talent today that could end up being the league-winning New Broughton Rangers players of the future!
“This will be just one of the first events that we’ll be holding to promote the Rangers, so we would ask local kids and their parents to come out and attend these events, to show support for their brand new local team.”
The event will eventually become a regular fixture in the calendar of New Broughton Rangers related activities to take place across the Lower Broughton area. A green space in the area with a number of high quality pitches is currently under construction, and will become the permanent home of the Rangers shortly.
Les Brown from Countryside Properties, who are sponsoring the tournament, commented: “It is fantastic to see so much enthusiasm and energy from all the local school kids who have taken part. The New Broughton Rangers is at the heart of Lower Broughton and offers local people the fantastic opportunity to become part of the community team we are helping to build with Salford City Reds. The work we are doing with the community through the sport of rugby league is all about being inclusive and offers people the chance of getting involved in with a great team no matter what their background is.”
Samantha McHale from Contour Homes, who are also sponsoring the tournament said: “Rugby is a great sport for boys and girls. As well as keeping fit it also develops team skills which can used in other areas of life. We are really keen to see more people getting involved and supporting this community initiative.”
The next event for the New Broughton Rangers will be the first training session for its youth team on Monday 11th February and there will be a bucket collection at the Willows during a Northern Rail Cup match on the 14th March between The Reds and the Rochdale Hornets . Be sure to give generously!
To find out how you can play for the New Broughton Rangers, call Ben Cramant on 07866 737905 or 0161 7375515.
