New Zealand’s First Ever Beach Rugby To Feature Coastal Side

No lineouts or scrums, no conversions & breakdown rule which is easy to follow.

In spite of the radical differences in rules, beach rugby is still a rugby form which is relished on sand.

Beach rugby tournaments might be something novel in the Kiwi rugby scene, but it commands a huge fan following in other nations and carries an established connoisseur base in France, Italy, Australia, Singapore, London & the USA.

New Zealand is all set to come up with its own beach rugby championship that would be hosted at Mount Maunganui. The tournament has been christened as Mount Beach 5s and will feature the Coastal side.

Played on 30m by 25m field, the beach rugby tournament will have teams with 5 players each as well as rolling substitutes. Every half is 5 minutes, one try signifies one point and a tackler should allow ball carrier a ball release- whilst the person in possession should play within a couple of seconds of getting tackled.

“I have played beach rugby in Europe & it’s a very fast-paced game. There is no question of scrums or lineouts to slow the game down”, stated Coastal star Kelvin Weir.
“We thought that we would chuck a squad in for fun. It’s tough on sand as you cannot step on anything and hence it’s mostly running on, hard lines.”

Weir remarked that as per his experience, most of the players could only be for 30 to 60 seconds on sand prior to being subbed since the game itself was really taxing. The maiden tour has been limited to 12 squads – 3 from South Island and 9 from North Island.

A 2nd tournament is due for 2015 January.”They’re getting experienced beach rugby referee right from Europe whilst some have arrived from Australia to help out in organizing the tournament.” Weir informed.