The York primary school rugby league tournament is be re-introduced after an absence of several years, and will have a new worldly feel.

The tournament, being brought back as eight-a-side tag rugby, will be run in the same fashion as last year's World Cup, with the 16 participating schools being allocated a specific nation and split into four groups.

Each squad comprises five girls and five boys of predominantly years five and six, and each game lasts ten minutes.

Tony Gargan, of York and District Rugby League Development Group, who are organising the tournament, said: "We hope it will be a winner.

"We sent letters out to primary schools in York and Selby and thought if we got about eight replies we'd have done all right. But 22 schools were interested, so it seems to have taken off."

Four of the 22 replies came from Selby, where the organisers now hope to hold a mini-tournament in addition to the one held in York.

Of the remaining two schools, both in York, one had to drop out, while another, whose application was unfortunately late, has been put on stand-by.

"This is the biggest thing we've done with rugby league in York schools. We could have about 200 kids playing tag rugby league," added Gargan.

With a Lottery grant helping to cover tournament costs, each school will receive five free rugby balls and a set of tag belts.

Furthermore, training sessions have already begun in the run-up to the competition, the first group games of which start on March 21. The group matches, to be played at Ripon and St John's College, run until March 29, with the finals day planned for March 31, probably at one of York's amateur clubs.

"Once the competition is finished we're hoping to carry on the development work, and some schools have already asked us to continue to do so," added Gargan.

" If successful, we might make it an annual thing and get even more schools involved."

For the record, Dunnington School have the pleasure of playing as England, while Westfield will hope to emulate their allocated country, Australia, by winning the tournament.

The groups are as follows:

Group 'A': Elvington (Western Samoa), Dunnington (England), Osbaldwick (South Africa), St Barnabas (New Zealand).

Group 'B': St Oswald's (Fiji), Carr (Papua New Guinea), St Aelred's (Cook Islands), Copmanthorpe (Wales).

Group 'C': Acomb (France), Lakeside (Lebanon), Clifton (Tonga), Oaken Grove (Russia).

Group 'D': Our Lady's (Scotland), Bishopthorpe (Ireland), Knavesmire (New Zealand Maoris), Westfield (Australia).

Updated: 12:18 Wednesday, January 31, 2001