MELROSE 7s
The Melrose 7s is the oldest 7-a-side rugby tournament in the world. This weekend will be the 127th tournament! It is one of the highlights of the year for any rugby fan and is a really fun day out.
Melrose is a lovely little town in the Scottish Borders, about 1 hour south of Edinburgh. The Borders is a fantastic region of Scotland, with beautiful rolling hills, occasional small forests and the famous rivers Tweed (and it's tributaries) running through the middle of it. It is farming country and it is also the heartland of Scottish rugby.
As you may know, rugby is usually played with 15 people on each side. Rugby 7s is played with only 7 people on each side! The pitch is the same size as a normal rugby pitch so you need tobe very fit to play 7s well. Because of this, each half is only 7 or 10 minutes long. The game was first played in Melrose in 1883 (which is why the Melrose 7s is the longest running 7s tournament) but it is now played all over the world, with Hong Kong and Dubai hosting some of the more famous tournaments.
This year the tournament will be honouring our soldiers who are serving abroad and raising money for Poppy Scotland who help support veterans. There is also a tribute on Youtube to the truly wonderful commentator, Bill McLaren, who died earlier this year aged 86, having spent over 50 years of his life bringing rugby to life for generations of rugby-lovers around the world. Rest in Peace, Bill.
a tournament- a sporting competition with lots of different teams/players
a heartland- an area or region where a certain activity is very important/strong
a pitch- a place with grass where you play football or rugby or cricket (but not tennish or basketball)
to honour- is when you give a person or a group of people public respect
a veteran- is a person who has fought in a war
a tribute- is similar to 'honour' and it is when you pay respect to a person or a group of people
Report in The Scotsman
Melrose 7s Website
Poppy Scotland
No comments:
Post a Comment