Tag Rugby is on the rise in Ireland and that’s music to the ears of Peadar Niland, Director of TagRugby.ie. Speaking to Dave O’Grady this week, Peadar believes this weekends ‘Pig N Porter festival in Limerick is just another step in the emergence of the sport here in Ireland.
“It’s grown exponentially over the last 14 years and the biggest one-day event in the calendar is the Pig N Porter festival in Limerick. This year we’ve turned it from a 1-day festival into a 3-day festival with the arrival of world champions Australia coming to play in Limerick”, he says.
Peadar explains how Tag Rugby has been an all-inclusive sport here in Ireland and that there are two types of Tag Rugby players. Some play for the social element and there are those who take it very seriously and train 3 nights a week. According to Peadar, the opportunities to progress in Tag Rugby are huge”.
“They now have a pathway where they can play for their region, they can play for Dublin, they can play for Limerick and then the next step you will see happening in Limerick this weekend. They are playing for their country against the best in the world.”
In recent time, many businesses and companies have been promoting Tag Rugby as social activities for their staff as an alternative to the mainstream sports here in Ireland and Peadar outlines the reasons for this.
“The beauty of Tag Rugby is that it’s a minimal contact game that’s played equally by boys and girls, so effectively, it is the perfect office environment. The league lasts 9 weeks and you pick your night and commit for the 9 weeks.”
From an international viewpoint, Team Ireland is building for the 2015 Tag Rugby World Cup in Australia and this will be in the heads of the players this weekend at the Pig N Porter festival. Australia agreed to come to the festival because they were impressed with the standard of this Irish team and no doubt there will be some great games on show!
Listen to Dave O’Grady’s full interview with Peadar Niland below:
Email: Dave@TipperaryTimes.com