Headingley Carnegie Stadium and the Leeds Rugby Foundation hosted a highly successful National Disability Tag Rugby Festival earlier this week.
The City of Leeds Sports Development Unit has been in the vanguard of providing rugby for people with disabilities since the early 1990s, when the then New Image tournaments were held at Morley RFC's Scatcherd Lane headquarters.
Since those early days, new image - more familiarly known touch rugby - has evolved into the more sophisticated and much more widely played game of tag rugby and as the tournament at Headingley Carnegie, the fledgling from Morley has also matured dramatically.
Over 500 rugby players attended this year's National Disability Tag Rugby Festival, making it the biggest event of its kind to be held in the UK. While in the early days the initiative was largely rugby union driven, this year's festival, like the last eight staged in Leeds, is a partnership project and aims to promote both rugby union and rugby league, as well as disabled sport on a national level.
Young people and adults with learning disabilities, physical impairments and sensory impairments took part, with teams of seven payers taking part in 10-minute matches. 
Tag rugby is minimal contact version of rugby, with tackles being made by removing one of the Velcro 'tags' attached to the player's waist.  It contains many of the core elements which feature in both rugby union and rugby league to produce a fast and skilful game.
An added bonus for some of the participants was that they got to meet some of the leading players from Leeds Rhinos and Leeds Carnegie teams, as well as treading the famous Headingley Carnegie turf which has graced by many of the most famous players in the history of the oval ball game.