Irish Rugby has unveiled details of a ‘Gathering’ event to take place at UCD in August which will bring 100 teams together in a festival of Tag, Touch and Sevens Rugby.The event is to be sponsored by Guinness Mid-Strength, the first new sporting involvement for Diageo since it announced it was stepping down from top level sponsor of the Guinness All Ireland Hurling Championship.
1,200 players are expected to take part with as many as half coming into Ireland from overseas and estimates are that this will deliver an economic value to Dublin and Ireland of over €250,000.
The festival of rugby was specially created as part of The Gathering and organised by the IRFU and Leinster Rugby. UCD is making its facilities available for teams in the same way as it is doing earlier in the summer for the Irish World Cup, a broadly similar contest supported by the FAI which is bringing seven a side teams together for what organisers hope will become an annual event.Teams wishing to participate are encouraged to visit www.irishrugby.ie/thegathering to register and find out more.
Tourism Ireland has seen double digit growth in the first quarter of 2013 from key markets like North America and Mainland Europe. Visitors from France were up 26% and likely to climb higher with the presence of three teams in this weekend’s Amlin and Heineken Cup Finals.
“The social side of summer rugby events is amazing and this is one of those events that promises to be the highlight of the summer,” said Irish Rugby Captain Jamie Heaslip launching the event at Government Buildings.
Minister for Transport, Tourism & Sport Leo Varadkar added “I’m really looking forward to this event which promises a feast of rugby. We are a sports-mad nation, and sporting occasions like this are a crucial part of the Gathering.”
“The tournament provides a great mix of rugby,” according to Rory Sheridan of sponsors Guinness, “and with such a large concentration of teams and competitions all in the one venue, through the support of UCD, the Guinness Mid-Strength Irish Rugby Gathering certainly promises to deliver a real carnival atmosphere on August 17th.”
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