Tag Rugby described........

Tag Rugby is ideal as a form of rugby competition in itself or as a social form of the game both Men and Women. IRFU Tag Rugby offers a choice of venues around all four provinces, each hosting various levels of leagues where you can enter your team based on ability. These Leagues range consist of four Mens levels and four Mixed Social leagues (Men and Women) .

Each team has seven players onfield out of a squad of maximum twelve players (in the Mixed Social leagues, each team must have THREE Women players onfield at all times). Subsititutions are carried out on a roll-on/roll-off basis ie. there are no limits to the amount of times a player can go off and come back on again. Additional players can be brought into a squad roster throughout the season but these players MUST be of the same league standard as the league the team are part of.

It is a non-contact form of rugby where a 'tackle' involves removing a 'Tag' strip adhered to the shorts of the ball carrier.

- Each side has six 'tackles' (removal of the Tag strip from ball carrier) to score a try. These are called 'Tags'

- After each 'tag', the player halts, the ball is placed dead on ground and rolled backwards with hand (NOT the foot) to team-mate standing behind

- A try is scored the same way as other forms of rugby ie. touching down the ball with full control on or over the try line

- If no score after sixth 'tag', the opposition then gain possession and another set of six 'tags' begins

- Again, as with other forms of rugby, the normal laws for a pass being behind or lateral with the passing player applies

Each Tag team player wears a pair of Tag Approved shorts which on each side have velcro patches to which a Tag strip itself is attached. No other form of shorts is permitted to be worn. IRFU Tag sell these shorts in all sizes in our online store which will go live in Early 2008.

If you wish to obtain a quote on additional insurance to compulsory IRFU cover, please contact our Insurance Brokers, Aon, or if you have any further insurance enquiries

Contact details, are the same as those used in respect of the compulsory
cover, Tel: 01 2666000 / Fax: 01 2666621 / Website: http://www.aon.ie/ 

All Tag enquiries by way of email can be sent to tag@irishrugby.ie

Feeling guilty about over indulgence at Christmas? Well, why not redeem yourself by entering the annual PSNI Cross Country run on Thursday 28th February 2008. This event will take place at Queen’s University Playing Fields, Dub Lane, Malone in south Belfast with registration between 1.30 pm and 2.10 pm. The race will start at 2.30 pm and is open to all PSNI staff, both Police and Support Staff. The course is generally flat with gentle slopes. The length is 4 miles for males and two miles for ladies.

The entry categories are:
Open Male,
Senior A Male (30-34 years),
Senior B Male (35-39),
Veteran Male Over 40 (40-44),
Vet Male Over 45 (45-49),
Vet Male Over 50 (50+),

Open Female,
Senior A Female (30-34 years),
Senior B Female (35-39),
Veteran Female Over 40 (40-44),
Vet Female Over 45 (45-49),
Vet Female Over 50 (50+),

Age on the date of the event

Additionally, there are team awards calculated by combining individual finishing positions (3 in each team).

A team is made of – 1 Open, 1 Senior and 1 Veteran this is taken from the runners on the day no need to enter the team.

Those runners who are members of the Athletic Association may apply for duty credit with the additional bonus that this event contributes points to their District for Sports Day. If your team building budget is exhausted this could be the event for you and your colleagues!

After the run, medals will be awarded at the Dub Pavilion.

Entry forms are available on Policenet (under Social & Sports – Athletics Club). Entry costs £2 per person.
If you have any queries, contact Paul Scarlett ext. 28664 Antrim Road PSNI.

FIRST PROVINCE WIDE 'SOCCER 6's TOURNAMENT

TO INCLUDE 3 REGIONAL HEATS AND A GRAND FINALS DAY
HEATS TO BE PLAYED IN JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2008
GRAND FINAL ON MARCH 18th 2008
TOURNAMENT WILL HAVE THREE CLASSES
MENS OPEN
LADIES
MENS OVER 35's

VENUES WILL BE THOUGHOUT THE PROVINCE TO FACILITATE REGIONAL HEATS

PLAYERS MAY BE EITHER SERVING OR RETIRED POLICE OFFICERS OR SUPPORT STAFF AND MUST BE A MEMBER OF THE ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION TO PARTICIPATE.

ALL TEAM PLAYERS MUST BE FROM THE SAME OPERATIONAL SUB DISTRICT. MINIMUM - 6 PLAYERS # MAXIMUM - 10 PLAYERS.

ONLY TWO TEAMS PER SUB DISTRICT AND HQ DEPARTMENTS PERMITTED

A COPY OF THE RULES WILL BE PUBLISHED ON THE PSNIFA WEBSITE IN DUE COURSE

www.psnifa.co.uk

IN ORDER TO PLAN FOR THIS EVENT WE WOULD ASK ALL INDIVIDUALS WHO WISH TO ENTER A TEAM TO COMPLETE THE ENTRY APPLICATION PROFORMA BELOW:

ENTRY APPLICATION PROFORMA

ALL RETURNS MUST BE RECEIVED BEFORE FRIDAY 16th NOVEMBER 2007

On Friday 14^th September 2007 the PSNI Boxing team/Newforge Country Club hosted an international event. The Operation Breakthrough Boxing Team of the Hong Kong Police joined forces with the PSNI to ‘take on’ a Northern Ireland Club Select Team. The capacity crowd of 400 became hushed with anticipation for the coming event.
A Woods (PSNI) won a hard opening encounter, overcoming a heavily bleeding nose and much taller opponent winning a unanimous decision.
In the first of the international fights Amrit Rai, from the Kingdom of Nepal, forced his Bangor opponent onto his ‘back foot’ with his aggressive style. Anna Lo MLA awarded Amrit a deserved winner’s trophy.
A Burrows (PSNI) put on powerful display in a fight against a Glengormley boxer. In the 3^rd Burrows gave his opponent a standing 8 count, winning the fight but also winning the Best PSNI Boxer Trophy.
Next up was Sures Gurung (Nepal). Although the lightest fighter of the team at bantam-weight, he is regarded as pound for pound the hardest puncher of the evening. Giving his opponent a standing count in the 2^nd and 3^rd round Sures kept his 100% unbeaten record and was awarded his trophy by James Wong.
Ah-Ching HK Police Boxing Club fought R Wilson Abbey ABC Bangor in what was supposed to be a no decision ‘exhibition bout.’ Both fighters gave no quarter and in an exchange of vicious ‘body shots,’ the fight was brought short by an accidental low blow.
S Mark (PSNI) fought an experienced boxer, moving up a level from his last few fights. He was forced to retreat under relentless pressure in the 2^nd round. Mark deserved his runner up trophy presented by World Kickboxing Champion Gary Hamilton.
Jang ‘Strong’ Kerng HK Police Boxing Club fought L McKee of Abbey ABC Bangor in an exhibition bout. Both boxers showed all the best attributes of boxing, using power, skill and fitness to put on an excellent display. Former World Kickboxing Champion Billy Murray awarded both fighters their trophies.
J Larmour (PSNI) fought a hard Light heavyweight battle against M Reid of Braid ABC Ballymena. Both fighters fought like lions at close range but Larmour won the fight by a majority decision with his better work at range and was awarded his trophy by Tommy Yeung.
Crowd favorite M Graham (PSNI) fought D Browne of Braid ABC.  Both fighters landed barrages of hard punches heard all across the marquee. In the 2^nd Graham landed a heavy right hand forcing his opponent to take a 10 sec standing count; the Braid fighter returned the favor landing a heavy right of his own. With 10 secs to go in the round Graham, walked on to a right hand that forced the referee to stop the contest. This bout was awarded the ‘hardest fight of the night’ by both coaches and the referee.
The main event of the evening was the match that ‘should have been’ the WPFG Final in Adelaide. Const A Jang (HK Police Boxing Club) fought P Cullen from (PSNI). Jang used his long reach to keep Cullen at a distance forcing him to try to punch his way in. Once inside Cullen landed the harder punches but was caught by a stinging series of punches at the end of the 2^nd round forcing the referee to stop the contest.

The PSNI Annual Sports sponsored by the RUCAA is now finally over, after the finals day at Newforge Country Club in June had to be postponed due to severe weather. The Sports day finals this year were held  for the first time at the Mary Peter’s track. The DCU’s were all competing for the Governors Trophy, which was first presented in 1923, and is awarded to the team with the most points accumulated by the approximately 1,000 competitors that took part. The whole competition now involves 14 separate sports from bowls and fishing, to Gaelic and Tag rugby, and of course several forms of athletics. Competitors competed across the age spectrum from 18 to 67 in the 124 separate events that make up the PSNI Sports.

Last year Belfast North missed out on the Governors Trophy by 1 point to Antrim DCU. This year they dominated the event and won it for the first time. Belfast North coordinated by Paul Scarlett, had built up a commanding lead coming into the finals day. The Foundation Faculty came second overall . It was good to see the whole of Foundation Faculty taking part, competing against their future colleagues. Had they been able to compete and accumulate points in some of the earlier sports events, the result could have been very different. They did add greatly to the whole day with their team spirit and inter class rivalries.

The other major trophies decided on the day were the

John Baird Trophy for the Best Women’s Team           

1^st Belfast North  (131 points)               2^nd Foundation Faculty  (88 points)  3^rd Lisburn  (68 points) 

Newforge Cup for the Best Men’s Team        

1^st Belfast North (247 points)    2^nd Foundation Faculty (138 points)     3^rd Omagh (104 points)              

Lagan Trophy for the Best Veterans Team       

1^st Belfast North  (92 points)                 2^nd  Belfast East  (78 points)     3^rd   Foyle (49 points)  

RUCAA Trophy for the Best Senior Team       

1^st Belfast North  (154 points)        &

Team training at Garnerville is Wednesdays at 7.00pm
Interested? Contact Sandy O'Neill on 07737208770 or Colin Downey on 07801251331
The team has existed since the early 1980's and in the last 10 years has donated over £100,000 to various cross community charities.


Forthcoming Events

• 9th-16th  September 2007  hosting a visiting team from Hong Kong
• Boxing evening at Newforge Friday 16th September 2007 PSNI and Hong Kong Police v Northern Ireland Club Select, the night to Include- Boxing, Chinese Lion Dance, PSNI Pipers, Chinese Drums and the band Nyrysh (pronounced NIRISH) Get your ticket early to avoid dissapointment.

Tickets £5 available from Newforge reception or Colin Downey on ext 24632 or 07801251331

Boxing PSNI/Garda Siochana V Ireland Select 2nd June 2007 at the Europa Hotel, Belfast
At this year’s event 300 guests watched the joint PSNI/Garda team take on an Ireland select team. As usual this was an excellent evening with a first rate meal followed by a series of well fought close bouts. Guests included Former World Flyweight Champion Dave ‘Boy’ McAuley and Local TV personality Pamela Ballantine.

A breakdown of the PSNI fights is as follows
Adrian Woods (Newtownabbey PSNI) Light-middleweight. Adrian fought well overcoming a knockdown in the 1st round to show the fighting spirit that earned him a bronze medal at the World Police and Fire Games in Adelaide. Adrian seems to improve with every fight and well deserved this victory.

Andy Burrows (North Belfast PSNI) Light-middleweight. Andy has proved what his coaches have been saying that he “is one to w

PSNI Sports Day timetable and all the events are remaining the same.
There is no need to submit all your entries again, Robin & Jonathan will consider the competitors entered as previously done.  If you have any chnages to your entries or if  you would like to enter  new competitors who have not previously entered.    New entries will be accepted until Thursday 13th September 2007.
If you require new entry forms or a timetable etc.
Please contact Robin or Jonathan on:

Robin.Mack@psni.pnn.police.uk
jonathan@newforge.com

Sometimes in life things happen just as you hoped they would, that was the case when Belfast was announced as the host city for the 2013 World Police and Fire Games (WPFG). The announcement is made just like the Olympic Games, the WPFG Directors appeared on stage and after a short introduction (which felt like forever) the President announced the result, the Belfast contingent went wild, Innsbruck buried their heads in their hands and the huge number of neutral onlookers clapped politely. Bid Team President Mary Peters uses her acceptance speech; the other one is promptly discarded! She was then joined by a small nameless group for a rendition of what? Yes, Danny Boy! The party begins!

The games has the potential to attract 12,000 – 15,000 competitors plus at least the same number of friends and family who will travel as supporters. The income to Northern Ireland will be £20m – £30m plus all the positive publicity and the opportunity to showcase our “wee country”. Initially ten cities applied to host the Games, this was short listed to five, Washington DC, Calgary, Denver, Innsbruck, and Belfast. Following weeklong site inspections the list was cut to two, Belfast and Innsbruck. The presentation team included Dame Mary Peters, Lord Mayor Pat Mc Carthy, Deputy Chief Constable Paul Leighton, Chief Fire Officer Colin Lamey, Director General of NI Prisons Robin Maysfield, Edgar Gardine from the Department of Culture Arts and Leisure and CEO of the Athletic Association Alistair McGowan.

Why did we win? The Directors told us the deciding factor was our integrity, self-belief and passion. It is six years to 2013; a lot of hard work is still to come, but what an opportunity for Belfast and Northern Ireland to show all that is good about our country and our people.

The directors, staff & members of the Athletic Association would like to congratulate Alistair, the presentation team & the bid committee for their vision, determination and all the hard work!!

Well done!

Again this prestigious venue attracted a record number of golfers from North, South, East and West of the province. This event was also a team competition attracting points for the Annual Sports Day Governor’s Trophy.

Trevor Hanvey and Leslie Busby again did an excellent job in organising the 150 competitors in an orderly fashion to the tee box. The first competitors got underway at 9.00am for the keenly fought competition. Such was the interest in the event that the final four-ball did not get away until 3.15pm, 38 teams in total.

On completion of the golf all were treated to a delicious meal while Leslie and Trevor collated the results. The winners were as follows:-

(Best 3 cards to count from a team of 4)

1^st Coleraine 109 points

2^nd Technical Support Group 106 points

3^rd Dungannon & South Tyrone 104 points

4^th Belfast South 103 points

5^th Belfast East 102 points

6^th Newry & Mourne 101 points

Gary McMaster from Larne had the best gross score with 75 points.

Jeff Callister from Coleraine won the overall stableford prize with an excellent score of 44 points.

P. Mooney was runner up with 39 points.

Heather Patterson from Antrim won the ladies stableford prize with 33 points.

The best score on the front 9 was won by Debbie McMaster, from Crime Ops. with 22 points. The best back 9 was won by D. Hilary.

Before presenting the prizes, Leslie Busby welcomed everyone to Royal Portrush. He extended a special welcome to Mr Jonathan Caldwell from the RUC Athletic Association, sponsor of the marvellous array of prizes. Leslie also thanked the Captain and Council of Royal Portrush for the use of the course. He extended a very special thanks to Trevor Hanvey for all the work he put into the administration and organisation of the event. He also thanked the competitors for participating in the competition and hoped they had an enjoyable day. Mr Jonathan Caldwell then presented the prizes.

Jeff Callister, Captain of the winning Coleraine Team, on behalf of the competitiors thanked Leslie and Trevor for organising an outstanding competition. He thanked the sponsors, the Athletic Association for the prizes and to Royal Portrush for their excellent facilities. He also thanked Abbey Insurance for sponsoring the calculators.

Leslie, in closing the event, informed the players that the results would be forwarded to Newforge for inclusion in the Sports Day results and invited the winners to come and collect their medals on Wednesday 20^th June 2007 at Newforge Country Club.

It is hoped that there will be another golf outing in the Autumn.

After an enthralling 110 minutes of typical cup football with the score standing at 2-2 it came down to the dreaded penalties to decide who will play Strathclyde in the final. Ironically it was my man of the match Kieran Loughran who broke the hearts of the home support when he hit the post with the third penalty after Gary O’Neill and Graham Arthurs had scored the first two. The game was over when George Stewart’s high drive was confidently turned away by the Met keeper and the visitors hit four excellent penalties past the outstanding Matt Kerr to clinch the shoot out 4-2.

Playing on an almost perfect pitch in warm sunshine the first chance of the game fell to Limavady winger Brian Butcher when he hit the side netting after good work by the veteran Geoff Ferris and the busy Loughran. It was the Met however who took the lead in the 15^th minute when Paul Barry Clough scored from the spot after Matt Kerr had brought down the visiting centre forward as he darted into the penalty box. The response from the home side was immediate with Ferris causing all sorts of problems with his dribbling skills and close control. Ten minutes later the cagy Ferris equalised for the PSNI when he slid home a Loughran fee kick after confusion in the Met defence. With the score 1-1 at half time and both teams beginning to feel the heat it was no surprise when the Londoners took the lead mid way through the second half as their superior passing skills began to tell. Urged on by coach, Davy Gardiner and the vociferous Colin Young the PSNI came storming back and should have scored in the 80^th minute when Phill Miller headed an Arthur’s cross wide with the goal at his mercy. The introduction of substitute David Healey brought the home fans to their feet when he blasted home an equaliser from 25 yards despite the angry protests of the Met keeper that the ball had not crossed the line. As two very tired teams played out extra time it was inevitable that one had to loose on penalties and so it proved to be.

As an advert for police football this was a classical cup tie that was a credit to both teams and the management of both clubs. For the PSNI mid fielder Kieran Loughran fought his heart out ably supported by the aggressive Phil Miller. Up front Mo Arthurs showed what a class act he is against good opposition whilst David Healey demonstrated what the art of goal scoring is really about. Met centre-half Ben Newman received the man of the match award.

PSNI Team

Kerr, Watson(Capt) O’Neill. McKnight,McPhillips, Butcher, Miller, Loughran,Stewart,Arthurs, Ferris

Subs:- Healey for Ferris, Young for McPhilips

Subs not used – Scot Nelson, Eamon Toland

The highlight of the evening was the PSNI Sports Awards for 2006. The audience waited in anticipation to here who would be claiming the silver ware this year!

The  2006 sports awards nominees:

The Moloney Trophy: For most improved PSNI Sportsperson of 2006.
Nominees: Adrian Moutray (Mountaineering), Philip Millar (Football), Craig McDowell (Hockey).

The winner was Adrian Moutray, for his efforts in reaching the North Coll of Mount Everest in May 2006. This is a feat achieved by few in the police, if not the world.

The Belfast Telegraph Malcolm Brodie Trophy: For PSNI Sports Team of 2006.
Nominees: PSNI Rifle & Pistol Club, PSNI Match Fishing Club, PSNI Gaelic Football Club

The winner was PSNI Gaelic Football Club, for winning the All-Ireland Corporate Games and the McCarthy Cup in 2006. This was the first time the PSNI had ever defeated their Garda rivals in Gaelic Football.

The Mary Peters Trophy: For Sportswoman of 06.
Nominees: Louise Aiken (Shooting), Christine Young (Bowls), Lynne Kerr (Athletics)

The winner was Christine Young, for representing Ireland on several occasions in 2006 and for her skills in leading various Irish and Police teams to victory.

The Sir Jamie Flanagan Trophy: For Club person of 2006.
Nominees: Tim Craig (Rugby, Special Olympics), Colin Brunt, Pauline Crompton (Athletics, Special Olympics)

The winner was Pauline Crompton, for her help in running and organising Special Olympics events and her work with the PSNI Athletics Club.

The Morrison Cup: For Sports person of 2006.
Nominees: Michael McDonald (Athletics), Louise Aiken (Shooting), Chris Mulholland (Bowls), Glen Warnock (Iron man)

The winner was Louise Aiken, for representing Northern Ireland at the Commonwealth Games and achieving consistent top 5 finishes in competitions throughout 2006.

The RUC GC Hall of Fame Award: for those sports persons who are considered greats in their sport. The winner was the late Bob Agar in recognition of his many years playing top level Internat