Vampire Beach Rugby May 11 on ‘Bama Beach

Vampire Beach Rugby May 11 on ‘Bama Beach

The Vampire Beach Rugby Tourney returns to the Flora-Bama Beach on May 11, with a maximum of 12 teams, including men’s and women’s sides from representing the Pensacola Aviators and Battleship Mobile. Matches beginning at 9 a.m. and spectators are welcome.
Also a fundraiser for the National Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, the tourney will include a blood drive (thus, the name). Each team and most of the teams’ followers will donate blood following their last match.
Directors Dale Wood and Dean Wood first organized the tourney to honor Alex Sharland, president of the Deep South Rugby Referees Assn. while Alex was going through treatments cancer treatments in 2019.
The format is a free flowing version of Rugby 7’s, which debuted as a medal sport at the 2016 Summer Olympics. Matches will consist of two five minute halves. There will be five players on the pitch from each team and a maximum of eight players on each roster (as per USARFU beach rugby laws).
Typical rugby plays such as rucks, mauls, lineouts and scrums do not exist and there is no kicking allowed. When a player is stopped, the ball must be played within two seconds and if not, the defending team is awarded possession
Scoring a try in the middle one-third of the pitch is awarded three points. Touching the ball down on the outside one-third of the try line is one point
When a player is stopped, the ball must be played within two seconds and if not, the defending team is awarded possession.
“Give Blood. Play Rugby’ is our slogan,’’ Dale Wood said. “The focus is to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and increase blood donations through our on-site Life South Blood Bus.
“This is a social event. That is our mind set going in. We want everybody to come and give blood if they can, whether they are rugby players on not,’’ he added.
For more tourney info, visit vampirebeachrugby.com or call 251-721-3956 or 251-721-4101.