Thirty one teams from all over the south west of England and south Wales
entered teams in the O2 Scrum on the Beach festival of rugby staged on
Weymouth Beach on Saturday.
Guest of honour was Wasps and England wing three quarter Paul Sackey
who mingled with the teams and their supporters signing autographs and posing
for pictures throught out the afternoon.
Sackey was delighted with the turn out despite the wet and overcast weather
conditions.
Local side Weymouth Pirates won a knock out cup event which pleased their
chairman Glyn Arnold who with the club secretary Chris Davis helped organise
the event and with the Weymouth club providing some very welcome labour to
stage the competition.
Press Release...
Paul Sackey at Weymouth's O2 Scrum on the Beach photo by RFU Press Office
August 2, 2009
Paul
Sackey is refusing to set himself a comeback date from the broken leg which
ruled him out of a possible summer tour with England or the British & Irish
Lions, but the London Wasps wing does make one bold prediction: “I’ll
be fitter, stronger and faster than ever.”
Sackey was speaking at the O2 Scrum on the Beach in Weymouth on
Saturday at the end of a hectic few days which began at the previous weekend’s
event on the sands of Bournemouth a few miles up the Dorset coast, followed by
a training camp with his Wasps club-mates in Poland.
“I flew to Poland last Monday to join the club’s pre-season training
and continue my rehab with sessions in the pool and in the special cryotherapy
chamber they have out there,” said Sackey, who won the most recent of his
22 England caps against Ireland in February, and last played for Wasps in mid-April.
“My leg was broken in two places last season but it is healing well. I
haven’t started running yet and it may be that I miss one or two games
at the start of the season, which is next month. But that’s better than
rushing back too quickly and maybe suffering another injury as a result.
“When you set a date you put much more pressure on yourself. I’m
not putting any dates in my head, I’m taking it steadily and not rushing.
As soon as the leg is strong and ready to go out there, that’s when my
date is. When I come back I want to be 100 per cent and hopefully fitter, stronger
and faster than ever.”
Weymouth was the fifth in the series of eight O2 Scrum on the Beach events this
summer, part of the Rugby Football Union's Play On campaign which aims to keep
more 16-24 year olds involved in the game and sustain the health of the country's
fastest growing major sport.
“I’m attending every O2 Scrum on the Beach,” said Sackey. “They
have been great for me to keep the enthusiasm up during the summer, to keep active
and meet a lot of new people getting involved in rugby.”
The drizzle in the air did not deter an impressive turn-out of 31 teams of boys,
girls and adults in the five-a-side tag rugby tournament on the renowned Weymouth sands, a drop-kick from the already
completed 2012 Olympic Games sailing venue, and next to the promenade statue
commemorating King George III, who spent 14 summers holidaying in the town. You
don’t have to be mad to enjoy beach rugby, and there was a reason why some
players donned string vests and knotted hankies, pirate costumes or bow ties
and cuffs without the dress shirts.
Sackey is judging the eight most stylish teams on a combination of play, look
and attitude, and they will be invited to take part in a tag tournament at the
home of England rugby,
Twickenham Stadium, in September.
Willie Wildash, RFU Council member for Dorset & Wilts,
has played and refereed in Weymouth beach rugby in
the past, but the first O2-sponsored event took his breath away. “It
really had the wow factor. It made me proud to see the resources the RFU
had got here, the number of happy youngsters, and the promotion of the
game in partnership with O2.”
Dan Brown, RFU Leisure Rugby manager, said: “This is the seventh year of
Weymouth beach rugby, but the first on this scale. The local rugby club Weymouth
RFC have been immensely helpful, and the Royal Engineers at Wyke Regis leant
us their specialist rigging equipment which made the task of loading and unloading
onto the sand much easier.”
O2 Scrum on the Beach 2009 at Weymouth Beach photo by RFU Press Office
Sackey met the local O2 Pathfinders who are part of a network around the country
helping players to find new clubs if they have moved home for work or study.
The O2 Pathfinders also promote rugby directly in schools and to students.
Sackey and other England players
will be appearing at the remaining O2 Scrum on the Beach events this summer at Tynemouth (August
8-9), Skegness (August 15) and Newquay (August 28-30). There is also an opportunity
to watch Martin Johnson's England squad training in a session
open to the public at Twickenham Stadium on Wednesday August 12.
