As if playing at Twickenham, meeting a rugby legend and getting a tour of the stadium wasn’t enough, Maximum Rugby competition winners Maldon RFC came out of the Twickenham Tag competition as champions.
The Essex based club completed a fantastic day by winning the tournament and coming out with a framed signed England shirt from Austin Healey and Paul Sackey for their club house.
All the teams from the Twickenham Tag competition
Along with Grimsby RUFC, they went down to Twickenham last Friday to enjoy a tour of the stadium and play on the pitch itself, with various other goodies and surprises along the way - including a meet and greet with former England player Austin Healey.
Simon Peacock, from Maldon RFC, said: “We managed to get 10 players and 7 spectators and everyone enjoyed running out onto the Twickenham pitch as Austin Healey announced each team. Austin made us all line up along the touch line and sing the national anthem which is something we’ll only get to do once. We all loved playing tag rugby for the first time and managed to win the tournament.
Austin Healey and Neil Corry
“It was fantastic to play against all the different people from the different clubs around the country and some of the playing outfits were pretty special. Some of the young players had fantastic ball skills and look like they could go a long way in the game. We’re all grateful to Maximum Rugby for giving us this opportunity to play at Twickenham.
Grimsby Captain Corry finds his spec in the changing room
“The only bad thing was that we had a few celebratory drinks after the tournament and 11 out of starting 15 of the team that played on Saturday had stinking hang overs. We ended up losing our league game against Old Brentwoods 31–24.”
As for Grimsby… well it’s not that often you’ll see an England winger turning out for your club, but that’s just what happened for the Lincolnshire side when Paul Sackey joined their team for ten minutes - and I’m told Grimsby man Stuart Saunders even managed to out run him!
Grimsby captain Neil Corry told us about his day: “Everyone was smiling, it was fantastic. It was all very well organised, everybody went in to tunnel, and when you’re team was announced, you were led out on to the pitch. As captain, it was a great experience to lead out my team at Twickenham. It was brilliant, it was as if we were proper team if you like!
“Everybody got together on the pitch and it’s what you dream of. You get people to shut their eyes and imagine a big crowd being there.
“I think the biggest emotional highlight is when we lined up and looked at the crowd and where the royal box would usually be and sang the national anthem. It was almost like an out of body experience, like you were watching yourself singing the anthem on TV. It sounds ridiculous saying that now, but it was absolutely fantastic!
“I managed to get over for one or two tries, which added to my day. I can say I scored a try at Twickenham as well as leading my team out on to the pitch.
Enjoying a massage! Send your captions in!
“We’ve taken hundreds of photos and there’s still a lot of texts flying about with people sharing their stories. People are still in shock I think, they can’t believe that they went to Twickenham! People are still very excited about it.”
Keep your eye out on this blog for more reaction, pictures and videos from the event soon!
