Great Britain Tag Rugby

You’ll need to be a registered Try Tag Rugby player or registered with another full ITF member. Anyone who was born in the United Kingdom; has a British passport; or has lived in the United Kingdom for at least the last three consecutive years. You cannot have played Tag Rugby for a different national team in the preceding year.

Following the Tag Rugby Performance Pyramid from top to bottom is the best way into the national setup. Playing weekly in leagues in your region will develop the fundamental skills and consistency all players require. Entering tournaments will provide you with the experience of playing a wider range of competitive opposition. Joining a Super League team will expose you to regular high level Tag Rugby. Having done this trialling for and representing your UK Tag Nationals region is then the best way to show your talents to the Great Britain coaches before registering for GB trials.

Great Britain trials are run annually at the start of spring to bring new and emerging talent into the national sides. An open trial is always run in London, while the last couple of years have seen additional trials run in Coventry, Oxford and Manchester to better facilitate access to the national programme for regional players.

Players of all experience levels are welcome to register for the open London trials as historically there have been players with representative experience from other sports that have made rapid progress into the Great Britain sides as a result of their transferable skills. However the majority of players benefit from taking the time to learn and develop the fundamental skills of the sport through leagues, tournaments, and finally Tag Nationals.

There are currently seven Great Britain sides. We have Mixed, Women’s and Men’s sides in the Open’s category; Mixed, Women’s and Men’s sides in the 30s category; and a Men’s side in the 40s category. Part of Great Britain Tag Rugby’s long-term vision is to create Mixed, Women’s and Men’s teams in U21s category; Mixed and Women’s teams in the 40s category and explore the creation of teams in the 50s category.

International Tag Rugby is played in the 8-a-side format. Mixed categories have a maximum of four male players on the pitch at any one time.
All age category restrictions are based on the date of the next ITF Tag World Cup. The dates below are the current ones for the 2023 tournament. Open categories have no age restrictions.
30s/Seniors – born on or before 31st December 1993 with men in the Mixed teams born on or before 31st December 1990.
40s – born on or before 31st December 1983.
50s – born on or before 31st December 1973.
U21s – born on or after 1st January 2002.