Date: 14/11/13
Students from four different Manchester High Schools attempted to unofficially break the Guinness Book of World Records on Tuesday 12th November for the most consecutive rugby ball passes.
In a warm up to the Mancunians’ RL inaugural Year 10 tournament – the largest Rugby League schools event held in the City of Manchester – the players managed to put together 136 passes using an oversized rugby ball provided by one of Rugby League World Cup 2013 official partners, online fashion retailer, GettheLabel.com. The current official world record stands at 279 passes.
Following the attempt, all the teams with representatives from Newall Green High School, Chorlton High School, Wright Robinson College, Gorton and Parrswood High School all participated in a series of matches, helped out by coaching tips from four Australian RLWC2013 players.
On the final whistle, Wright Robinson College was declared as the tournament’s winners and presented a trophy. All the players participating in the matches also received a signed official RLWC2013 GettheLabel.com Try Card as well as an official RLWC2013 beanie hat and medal.
Host organiser and Mancunians chairman, Stefan Hopewell, summarises the tournament: “It was an excellent afternoon of Rugby League and fantastic weather for it. I’m delighted to have seen so many players from a number of different schools take the time out to come down and enjoy it here with the Australian team – there certainly was a number of tightly fought battles out there on the pitches today. We can now look forward to working with all the schools more regularly in the future and must also thank Parrswood High School for lending us their facilities for the afternoon.”
“We launch our Rugby League academy this Friday at Parrswood Sports Centre and all boys aged 15 or under are welcome to come down and try out.” He added.
Liz McNamara, marketing director at GettheLabel.com, concluded: “As an official partner to the RLWC2013 it’s great to be able to support rugby league at grassroots level. All the children who took part certainly looked like they had a great time.”
The Australian players were taking time out from their busy RLWC2013 training schedule to attend the school ahead of their quarter final match against USA on Saturday 16th November, 1pm at the Glyndwr University Racecourse Stadium, Wrexham. Tickets are still available via www.rlwc2013.com/tickets
