On Saturday, Hull Ionians hosted the North East Regional Development Touch Rugby Series which saw 8 teams from across the Northeast compete in a mixed gender tournament. The tournament’s affiliated with England touch rugby which is currently one of the fastest growing sports in the country. It’s a tactical fast paced alternative to the traditional game with a non-contact mixture of league, union and 7s all thrown in to one. One thing’s for sure, it’s bloody hard work…

It was the debut tournament for the recently formed Hull Ionians Mad Dogs who have been up and running since May, playing against some of the best teams the Northeast has to offer. Consequently, it was always going to be a baptism of fire but the Mad Dogs did themselves proud, coming 4th overall in the tournament. Our squad consisted of players past and present (mainly past) with a combination of young, old, crippled and immobile so we were full of ambition.

Our first game was against local team, Roundheads, which saw us be lulled into a false sense of security as our fast paced attack proved too much for them and we breezed through an 8-0 victory, with captain leader and legend, Brad Willingham bagging 5. I did however shoot my load in the first game and wouldn’t score for the rest of the tournament - classic.

Next up we faced the overall winners of the tournament, Stockton who gave us a harsh lesson in how touch rugby should be played. We would lose the first half 5-1 and after some tactical defensive discussions and amendments at half time, would go on to lose 6-1. A loss, but still some improvement and an exceptional defensive performance from young gun, Isaac Gleadow to give us some confidence. In our last first-round game we played Leeds University which saw us narrowly beat them 4-3 with some exceptional combinations of Rob Marson, Andy Gleadow and some unreal wing play from Womens XV no8, Jess, proving too much for the university side, meaning we were through to the Cup Semi Final…

Victims of our own success, the Cup was a bit above our pay grades, losing to Yorkshire Thorns 6-1 who were a side who we thought would go on and win the full thing, classy outfit. We scratched that result from our minds and focused on whether we could come away with the bronze medal as we faced a young Driffield side for our fifth and final match of the day.

Alas, the young talent of Driffield proved too much and despite valiant attacking efforts from the team, our average age being approximately 15 years their senior meant our legs and lungs also defeated us. We would lose 5-2 and settle for mid table. Touch rugby is a surprisingly strategic game and many of the opposition had national standard players in so to come 4th is not half bad for our inaugural outing. Credit to all the players who turned up for the club. Notable mentions go to Rob Marson and young Isaac Gleadow who would pick up the male Ionians MVP awards as I couldn’t pick between them - both outstanding, Lesley, who travelled down from the toon to help coach us and also to my mrs, Laura Elliott who was voted as female MVP by our interim coach, Lesley. I had nothing to do with it, honest!!

What was most pleasing was to get just over 100 players playing sport down at the club. Finished off with a trophy ceremony in the bar, which saw Stockton take the Cup glory and a few beers afterwards to celebrate the victory of the Ramblers’ game. We look forward to hosting more tournaments down at the club and to see how far we can progress the talents of the Mad Dogs in their touch rugby adventures.

It was great to see so many teams yesterday with a wide range of abilities I hope each team and their players got some development for their game out of it.

Just re-capping on what Lesley said there was a lot of talent on show yesterday and the region is looking for male and female players to represent the "raiders" at the Nationals

The region is looking to enter the following teams subject to player number

Mixed opens coached by Lesley McCallion

Men's 30s coached by Pete Strachan

Women's 40s coached by Lesley Marshall

Men's 50s coached by Adrian Williams

All the coaches were at yesterday's tournament except Lesley Marshall.

There is an open development day on Saturday 29th November and Saturday 10th Jan

Lino below to register players' interest please share within your teams/ clubs

https://forms.gle/9zsrsHJySoJXRjuJ6