History of Oztag

Everyone knows that Oztag is a variation of touch rugby, but have you ever wondered how the sport came about? Ever wondered who discovered it and why? 

Well, in 1990 a man under the name of Nick Leonard from England (a physical education teacher) had introduced to young children a variation of rugby called tag rugby. This idea was brought about by a man named Barry Johns who described that navy servicemen would often played this sport on board ship. After having heard of this inventive sport, Leonard then developed a set of rules that would be suitable for children. He used terms such as roll-the-ball, scrum-half (aka dummy-half) and 

tag instead of tackle. He was also the person to utulise belts and coloured ribbons attached by velcro.

However, going back in time, the basic game and rules of tag rugby was first mentioned by the Gibratar Rugby Union during the 1980s.

(Gilbratar Rugby Football Union)

The reason why Gibraltar designed this game was because even up til the mid-1980s, rugby was difficult to play due to the lack of grass. This meant that games would have to be played on hard or rocky surfaces. Fortunately for them, the answer to this dilemma was to play tag rugby, which would cause less injuries when playing on rougher surfaces. As a non-contact sport that used velcro tags

So... in other words, the creation of tag rugby kept Rugby alive!

Ever since the beginnings of 1992, Oztag became a variant of tag rugby and grew in popularity all across Australia, including in rural and urban areas. At Cronulla and St George Sydney where the first season of Oztag commenced, a total of 28 teams participated in the sport. 

Today, there is over 80,000 players taking part in Oztag competitions nationally! Amazing!

Hopefully.... you have learnt something new about the creation of this competitive, fast-paced and intense sport that we call Oztag.

More to come very soon!

Ta.