Beach sports:Teams encouraged to enter first Beach Rugby 5s

GREAT FUN: Amy Robinson of the Blue Steel team challenges for the ball at the NZ Beach Hockey Championships at Mount Main Beach last January.PHOTO/FILE

Beach Rugby 5s is set to make a spectacular debut at Mount Maunganui's Main Beach on Saturday alongside the return of the popular NZ Beach Hockey Championships.

Rugby 5s is designed to be a full-contact, free-flowing spectacle that is easy to comprehend and thrilling to watch.

Organiser Melita Martorana has brought the game to New Zealand and she would love to see more teams enter prior to the event or on Saturday morning before the 10am start.

The game is played on a 31x25m area, plus try-scoring areas and games take 12 minutes to play. Plenty of spot prizes are up for grabs and at just $10 per player is good value for money.

There are three men's divisions of over-20 open grade, over-30 presidents and over-40 golden oldies in teams of 10 with rolling substitutions. Players do not have to be affiliated with rugby clubs and can just get together with some mates and get involved in a unique rugby occasion in the Bay.

Martorana used to work for Italian Rugby and one of the biggest events was the Beach 5s which she says is huge in Europe.

"All the major franchises and teams from all around Europe play sevens and beach 5s over the summer, and former international players love to play it, so you find the big city clubs are full of top players," said Martorana.

She says it is a very simple game to master and understand.

"It is just tackle, tap and go. There are no lineouts, scrums or kicking and every try is worth one point, so there is not too much thinking to do or problem for people watching to understand."

Running concurrently at the beach next to the Rugby 5s will be the second NZ Beach Hockey Championships, after last January's inaugural event got rave reviews and great crowd participation.

Matorana says they will combine the two in a novel exhibition at lunchtime that has never been seen before on a Bay of Plenty beach.

Jason Niles from NZ Beach Hockey says after the successful launch in Mount Maunganui last summer, they want to go bigger and better with this year's champs that run over Saturday and Sunday. "So it's your chance to dust off the speedos, get a team of 6-10 people together (five-a-side with mandatory two girls playing at all times), get yourself to the Mount and have a crack at becoming only the second ever NZ Beach Hockey champion," he said. "We've got vouchers for the overall winner, and spot prizes to give out throughout the weekend. Any youngsters (12 and under) that want to have a go can come along on Saturday and Sunday afternoons and play during kids hour."

Niles says he has got a few celebrities lined up for this weekend.

To register for rugby email beach5snz@gmail.com or hockey jase@nzbeachhockey.co.nz.