25th Annual Tens Rugby Tournament set for Sept. 23 and 24 in Flagstaff

FLAGSTAFF -- The Northern Arizona Rugby Football Club (NARFC) is hosting the 25th Annual Tens Rugby Tournament on Sept. 24 and 25, 2005 at Thorpe Park, Flagstaff. This is the oldest "Tens" rugby tournament in the world.

It is called a "Tens" tournament because rugby is normally played with 15 players on each side. This tournament has 10 players per team. Twenty-five years ago the club wanted to put on a tournament but only had 10 players, so for the sake of fairness and sportsmanship started a "tens" tournament. Since then NARFC has grown to 35-50 members on the men's team, 25-40 members on the women's team (the Timberdoodles), 8-20 members on the old boys team (Land Shark Dinosaurs/over 35 years old). NARFC will also be starting up a high school team in the next few years.

Due to Thorpe Park being redesigned, the tournament will be limited to only four fields this year. Therefore, this international event will be limited to 38 teams. The approximate breakdown is 12 college teams (the NAU team are defending champions this year), 10 men's teams, 12 women's teams and four old boys teams (must be or look 35 years of age or older).

Kick off is at 8 a.m. on Saturday after opening remarks from the guest of honor, Ann Kirkpatrick, Arizona State Legislator for this district. Matches will be played until approximately 5 p.m. Admission is free and food, T-shirts and beer will be available for purchase. Sunday's kick off is at 9 a.m. for the semi-final and the championship matches will end at approximately 1:30 p.m.

The tournament celebration will be at Joe's at 6:30 p.m. Saturday night. Joe's is a sponsor for the club along with Compass Bank, Golden Eagle Distributors and NAU.

This is an event in Flagstaff, which most people have never heard of, and with 38 teams at a minimum of 15 persons on a team (10 players, four subs and one coach), there will be at least 570 participants descending on the City of Flagstaff. Many of these participants are outstanding athletes from all over the world.

Donate to nhonews.com Report a Typo Contact
Most Read