Dragons invite schools to their den for tournament

Mar 18 2009 by Andrew Weston, Wishaw Press

DALZIEL Dragons mini-rugby club are set to host a tournament for schools in North Lanarkshire at Dalziel Park tomorrow (Thursday).

Recently the club’s coaches have been visiting schools in the area promoting the sport.

This promotion concludes with a festival of rugby involving more than 100 youngsters from across Lanarkshire.

Alistair Coltart, coach of Dalziel Dragons, the junior section of Dalziel RFC, said: “We have been visiting these schools over the past four weeks doing an after-school club introducing them to rugby.

“The tournament will let them play against other schools at Dalziel Park.

“The tournament will give them three to four games each, with the chance to progress through to the final and be the champions.

“My main aim is to get the youngsters up to Dalziel Park in the hope that some of them come back to play for Dalziel in the future.”

The tournament kicks off at 10am and spectators will be welcomed.

The schools taking part include New Stevenston/St Patrick's, St Mary's, Holytown, Our Lady and St Francis,

Christ the King and Wishaw Academy/St Ignatius.

Dragons’ regular training sessions take place at Dalziel Park on Saturdays at 10am.

For more information go to www.dalzieldragons.co.uk.

Meanwhile, Dalziel Dragons mini section welcomed Uddingston to Dalziel Park last weekend.

The P1 to P3 side performed admirably, showing some neat skills in attack and in defence, before losing to a more settled Uddingston side. Dalziel used all 20 of their players.

The P4 side failed to gain revenge over Uddingston. who defeated them earlier in the season.

Lewis Tomlinson scored the Motherwell side’s first try and Ben Tuddenham and Zak Knox also went over but Uddingston replied with seven tries.

Uddingston started the P5 match quickly and led 7-2 at half time.

Despite Dalziel coming more into the game after the break, the final score was 11-6 to the visitors.

Dalziel P5s gained revenge in the second match, winning 6-4 in a much more even encounter.

In the P6 game, it was decided to play a 10-a-side match because of the excellent turnout of players.

Dalziel, who were too strong in attack and defence, practised rucking for the first time. They finished 7-0 winners.

The P7s played two matches and Uddingston won both contests 4-3 and 4-2.