By Dom Benson
July 12 2002

The inaugural NRSA Touch Rugby Tournament took place at London Irish's ground in Sunbury on Sat. 13 July as part of the Sport Relief effort to raise money for charity.

Two of London Wasps' players actively support the charity - Lawrence Dallaglio is leaning on various bods for funds whilst Martin Offiah went one step beyond by taking part in "Superstars".

As for the Touch fest, piloted first by London Irish last summer, London Wasps entered a supporters' team which including several Drunken Wasps. Among our number was the less well known but infinitely more devastating Glasgow University wing of Wasps

London Wasps is in good company as 8 Clubs took part: Bath, Bedford, Harlequins, London Irish, London Wasps, London Welsh, Moseley & Northampton.

Pool B pitted us against Saints, our illustrious hosts Irish and Moseley. After a shakey start we dispatched Saints Yaks 5-1 after trailing at the interval.

We threw away a 3-2 half-time advantage to lose 5-4 to the hosts. (Strategically a wise move if not apparent at the time, as it put us on a collision course for Welsh in the semis and an earlier exit to the bar!)

Moseley were our last combatants. Clearly they were taking the event far more seriously than the Drunken Wasps, having balanced the benefit of having their first team winger with several pints of hair-of-the-dog. HotD won the day for us 8-1 but Moseley's beer table put us (and all the other teams) to shame.

Drunken Wasps second in our pool! Who would have credited it? The day was saved when the semi pitted us against the wiliest team from London Welsh. The manager tried to play the underdog card by claiming that their better players had to leave early. In the event, they thrashed us 7 or 8 - nil and took the final against Irish as the DW's repaired to the bar at the late hour of 4.30pm.

I'm pleased to report that only our gracious hosts were left in situ when we left after dark. We shall always fall behind Irish in the drinking stakes but there is no shame in being runners-up to them.

Thanks to Adam, Peter and all at Irish for the lash, the B-B-Q and the fundraising events.

See you at next summer's event, wherever it is.

The tournament rules may be found at: NRSA touch rules