On Friday August 7th London Skolars, in conjunction with Play Touch Rugby League, held their annual City Touch Rugby tournament at the iconic HAC Artillery ground. Now in its 6th year the event had a record 16 teams including 8 new teams competing to be crowned 2015 WisdomTree Europe City Touch champions. The weather was perfect and clear which made for a great afternoon both on and off the field.
The group stages (four pools of 4) proved to be an intense battle with debutants Mako Team 1 & 2 displaying their depth and class in both Pools A & B. An undermanned Daiwa fought on gallantly to keep Mako 1 honest as they progressed through to the semi-final 1. They were however upstaged in the semi-final by Henderson Global who snuck under the radar to take out Pool B. In arguably the match of the tournament Henderson Global defeated a tiring Mako 1 outfit in extra time with a golden try. On pitch two S & H consulting, also new to the competition proved a handful for regular City Touch supporters Pcubed & Ipreo taking out Pool C. While the ever dominant Lend Lease seeking back to back victories in the competition showed their class comfortably taking out Group D. Despite this outcome this pool had plenty of spice with legal firm rivals, Clyde & Co, Milbank & Mayer Brown put all at stake to gain ultimate bragging rights. In the end Clyde & Co were too strong for their rivals finishing 2nd in Pool D but I’m certain all three teams are eagerly anticipating a rematch next year. Pool C winners S & H battled hard in their semi-final against an experienced Lend Lease side but fell short. Lend Lease continued their dominance in the final against Henderson Global Investors and were crowned 2015 WisdomTree Europe City Touch champions and will start as favourites in 2016 after successive victories.
I would like to thank WisdomTree Europe for their sponsorship of the event, the HAC, PTRL and all Skolars players and volunteers for all their support on the day. Finally thank you to all the teams who participated and supported this great event and made it such a wonderful day!
We are already reserving places for teams in the Skolars 2016 City Touch event (date tbc) showing just what a success this year’s Tournament was. If you would like to reserve your place then please email info@skolarsrl.com
