For the first time ever the UK Tag Nationals took place outside of London with regional sides descending on West Park Leeds RUFC on Saturday 21st May.

In a nice contrast to the torrential rain of 2021 the sun made frequent appearances to spotlight the pride and passion on show from all the teams as a great day was played out in front of friends and family at the venue as well as hundreds watching on the livestream.

The event saw a record 41 teams from 10 of the Try Tag Rugby regions around the UK come together to battle it out across Mixed Open, Women’s Open, Men’s Open and Men’s 40s categories to see which region would be crowned the UK Tag National Champions.

Despite the home ground advantage for Yorkshire and some great performances from the regional teams, it was once again the London regions that took home the spoils.

The first of the finals was in inaugural running of the Men’s 40s category with East London Eels beating South London Seals 2-0, repeating their victory over the same opposition in the round robin phase. North London Nighthawks and Yorkshire White Roses also put in very strong performances in the first phase that saw them just miss out on reaching the final.

In the Women’s Open Category the final was a replay from 2019 as West London Wolves and East London Eels met once again. Eager for revenge the Eels scored a couple of go ahead tries before the Wolves mounted a comeback, culminating in an excellent bonus box score. Captain Jade Walker put boot to ball just short of halfway that bounced perfectly into the arms of Poppy Love who swerved past the sweeper to score two points and put the seal on a 4-2 victory. Following on from a trailblazing performance in 2021 Manchester Worker Bees once again had a number of positive results including a 5-0 win in their final match against Yorkshire which saw them finish fifth for the second year running.

The Men’s Open final was another West v East affair that swung one way and then the other. East London Eels had a two point lead and were looking comfortable before a double strike from captain Reiss Walker, including a try from his own kick, tied things up. The deadlock remained for over 10 minutes and just as both sides looked ahead to sudden death drop-off to decide a winner Russell Reid scored on the final play of the game, grounding the ball simultaneously with his tag being taken to secure the 3-2 win. West London had won two categories for the first time in their region’s history! Yorkshire White Roses had put in another confident display in the category and only narrowly lost to East London in the semi-final in what is fast becoming a classic Tag Nationals rivalry.

The Mixed Open Grand Final was once again a South London lockout with the Greens and the Whites having swept all opposition aside, conceding just eight points between them before their match-up. A tight affair followed producing one of the tries of the tournament, as Nick de Jonge gathered a Dan Ampaw restart, weaved through three defenders and touched down in the box to get himself on the RFL’s OurLeague Try of the Week shortlist! Yorkshire White Roses finished third for their strongest result this year with Bristol also putting in superb performances to reach fifth, thanks in no small part to George Hargreaves who was one of the Players of the Tournament.

Thank you to all the players for putting on a fantastic show of Tag Rugby at this year’s UK Tag Nationals, we hoped you enjoyed a great weekend out in Yorkshire. A big thank you also goes to all the Regional Managers and Coaches who have helped their region’s teams prepare and take part in the event.

More than ever this year, we would like to thank the referees, staff and partners for their involvement and to pay an extra special tribute to them given the distances some of them travelled to this tournament.

Thanks to PSS International Removals, our official referee partner.

RE-WATCH THE LIVE STREAMS
www.facebook.com/trytagrugby (Pool games and Quarter-Finals)
Our League App and browser viewing (Semi-Finals and Grand Finals)
Be sure to vote for Nick de Jonge’s Try on the OurLeague app (download the app from your usual app store, register and vote).

NATIONALS HOODIES
If you missed out on getting a Nationals hoodie, these will be available to purchase in early June on our online shop, www.trytagrugbyshop.com. We’ll be keeping the same design of hoodie into at least 2023.

CATEGORY WINNERS
Mixed Open – South London Seals Green
Women’s Open – West London Wolves
Men’s Open – West London Wolves
Men’s 40s – East London Eels

PLAYERS OF THE TOURNAMENT
Mixed Open – Rachael Abbey (Coventry & Warwickshire Hurricanes) and George Hargreaves (Bristol Brabazons)
Women’s Open – Charlotte Towerton (East London Eels)
Men’s Open – Aiden Wilkinson (Yorkshire White Roses Blue)
Men’s 40s – Ryan Gould (North London Nighthawks)

FINAL POSITIONS

Mixed Open

  1. South London Seals Green
  2. South London Seals White
  3. Yorkshire White Roses Blue
  4. East London Electric Eels
  5. Bristol Brabazons
  6. North London Nighthawks
  7. Yorkshire White Roses White
  8. Thames Valley Titans
  9. Manchester Worker Bees
  10. Coventry & Warwickshire Hurricanes
  11. East London Conger Eels
  12. West London Wolves
  13. Wigan Wizards

Women’s Open

  1. West London Wolves
  2. East London Eels
  3. North London Nighthawks
  4. South London Seals Green
  5. Manchester Worker Bees
  6. Yorkshire White Roses Blue
  7. South London Seals White
  8. Thames Valley Titans
  9. Bristol Brabazons
  10. Coventry & Warwickshire Hurricanes
  11. Yorkshire White Roses White

Men’s Open

  1. West London Wolves
  2. East London Eels
  3. North London Nighthawks
  4. Yorkshire White Roses Blue
  5. South London Seals
  6. Bristol Brabazons
  7. Yorkshire White Roses White
  8. Manchester Worker Bees
  9. Thames Valley Titans
  10. Coventry & Warwickshire Hurricanes

Men’s 40s

  1. East London Eels
  2. South London Seals
  3. North London Nighthawks
  4. Yorkshire White Roses
  5. Coventry & Warwickshire Hurricanes
  6. Thames Valley Titans
  7. Manchester & Wigan