IT was rugby all the way last Thursday when more than 250 children took part in the Kennet District Tag Rugby Festival.

The annual event was held at Devizes Rugby Club and gave 24 teams of Year Five and Year Six school pupils their first real taste of competitive action.

The tournament, which was co-ordinated by Kennet District Council and sponsored by Devizes RFC, was hailed a big success.

The 24 teams were divided into pools and then all played each other in a round-robin format with points being awarded for wins.

At the end of the matches the team with the most points was crowed the champions.

Home town Devizes side St. Josephs School A triumphed on Thursday. Clarendon School A came second with Southbroom A third and Zooch Primary fourth.

Amanda Cox, Kennet District Council's leisure development officer, said: "We hold this event every year and it was again a big success.

"Tag rugby is a brilliant way of introducing the children to rugby. It is non-contact and is great for girls and boys to play mixed.

"You don't need lots of equipment and the children can start playing the game after only one session because of the simplicity of the rules."

Cox said a lot of preparation had gone into organising the tournament and added that the council would continue to work with schools in promoting the sport.

"Devizes RFC's junior coaches always help us in schools before the tournaments and also prior to the festival we hold a teacher training course in tag rugby," she said.

"We like to encourage the teachers to get tag rugby played in schools more regularly. Then this festival is the culmination of that."

Cox praised the efforts of the children involved and said the tournament had gone really well.

"It was a fantastic day," she continued. "The weather held out for us although the heavens did open as we were making the presentations.

"One of the children said it was best tag rugby tournament they had ever been to. It has turned into such a huge competition and for most of the children it is their first experience of a tournament.

"We used eight pitches so there were lots of matches going on at the same time. A lot of parents were there and all the teachers and parent-helpers got involved.

"I must also thank the eight Devizes School A-level students who came down and did brilliantly refereeing the matches."

Tournament winners St. Josephs School A will now also go on to represent Kennet in the Wiltshire Youth Games in Bath.

The next Kennet Tag Rugby Festival has been pencilled in to be held in Marlborough on June 19.

Cox added: "Everyone enjoyed it and we got children active for an afternoon which was the main point of it.

"We also made sure they all went away with details of how to join local rugby clubs."