Tag rugby is a fast-growing phenomenon - more than 7,000 adults play every weekend. Conor Pope discovers a lively social scene, and even a hint of romance ...
'Tag rugby? More like fag rugby," some hoot derisively when you bring up the sporting phenomenon that is over-running parks and rugby pitches across the country this summer. Quite why a sport that sees 30 sweaty blokes grappling between each other's legs is considered "straight" while one involving both sexes is regarded as less so, defies logic.
Unless, of course, the logic employed is that of Homer Simpson, who once cautioned his daughter against playing ice hockey: "Lisa, if the bible has taught us nothing else - and it hasn't - it's that girls should stick to girls' sports such as hot oil wrestling and foxy boxing and such and such."
Tag rugby, introduced to Ireland four years ago, is perhaps the only team sport where men and women compete together on a level playing field. This, coupled with the fact that it takes about 15 seconds to learn the basic rules, explains why it has been crowding out five-a-side football in parks since the end of March. For many 20- and 30-somethings it has replaced the monotony of the gym or the loneliness of the long-distance run on bright summer evenings.
As the social element is so strong, the games tend to be extremely good natured. The competitive edge remains, however, and the sight of a petite woman delivering a rollicking to a burly, red-faced man, who hasn't passed her the ball, while she races into a perfect try-scoring position, is not uncommon.
Women who score are awarded three points, while men get just a single point, creating an incentive to involve more women. It is this element which makes the game appealing to many women, as no team can win without their full involvement. "If you're a woman, once you leave school or, at a push, university, the opportunities to play team sports all but disappear," says one woman who took up the game only last year. "It's different for men, who can be found playing five-a-side football or whatever well into their 40s.
"Because the point scoring is weighted, it means that everyone has to be involved equally or the game doesn't work," she continues. "And because it's such a new sport, you can take it up in your late 20s and still play competitively."
The man behind its introduction to Ireland is Simon Bewley, who is employed by the IRFU to oversee the development of tag rugby at both child and adult level. Four years ago, when he was travelling the world en route to Australia, it would have seemed like the most unlikely of jobs.
He brought the game home in the summer of 2000. "I saw it in Australia and when I came back to Ireland, there was a little bit of touch rugby going on, but nothing serious. I got in touch with the Leinster branch of the IRFU about setting something up." The branch was receptive and he got the thing up and running in six weeks between April and June of 2000.
The first season was hosted by St Mary's in Dublin and involved 36 teams from companies around Dublin. The following summer, there were 124 teams. This year, 512 teams registered to play in venues in all four provinces. After the first summer season, Bewley approached the IRFU to discuss his continued involvement in tag rugby. The organisation was searching for a co-ordinator for children's tag rugby. "I was in the right place at the right time," he says of his appointment as the IRFU tag rugby development officer.
During the winter, he works with the schools programme. There are more than 550 national schools where tag is now played. "It is non-contact and a very safe game to play. We're now up and running in Ulster, too, where we have managed to cross the divide, we're getting into many of the traditional Gaelic games playing schools," he says.
During the summer, on the nights of adult games, barbecues are organised to feed the hungry, and the clubhouse bars are packed. More than 7,000 adults now play each week. "It's the social side of the game that's growing it so quickly," he says. "There are a lot of romances developing as a result of it." On the first day of registration this year, 95 teams signed up. "I'm very proud of that, there are not many sports in Ireland that can make that claim."
The rugby clubs in Ireland have been hit by professionalism and the increasing focus on provincial as opposed to club rugby. The IRFU is keen to develop tag rugby, not only because it is a great revenue boost, but because it is winning a whole new audience for the game at all levels. Tag rugby nights in Dublin, for instance, regularly attract bigger crowds than an all-Ireland league night. It also attracts people who have never played rugby. "Sixty per cent [of current tag players] were not playing rugby when they joined a league," says Bewley, "and most of them had never played rugby of any description before."
A Homer Simpson-esque reaction to the game is common, says Bewley. In the early stages, he says, serious rugby players were reluctant to get involved. "But many of them have come into it now because they see how much craic it is, and how competitive it is."