As Tigers prepare for the start of this season’s tournament at Mellish RFC on Sunday, scrum-half Harrison recalls leading Hinckley Under-10s to victory in the 2000 Prima Tiger Cup.
“We had a number of games at Welford Road in the competition and when we played there in the final we ran out through the actual tunnel,” recalls Harrison, 21, who has started the last three first-team games for Tigers.
“At that age, it was really exciting to run out where the players ran out. It was a great atmosphere. The crowd were watching and were getting into it as well.
“At that time it was the most important game of that age group, it was the best level you could get to. I was captain and really wanted to win.
“Since then I have gone onto other things in my rugby, but it is still a really good memory of winning it.”
Supported by Loughborough-based Prima Solutions, the Prima Tiger Cup is a contact tournament for under-10s teams and kicks off this with a festival at Mellish RFC. Hosts Mellish and 2009 winners Nottingham Boots Corsairs will be joined by teams from Kesteven, Melbourne, Newark, Scunthorpe Sleaford, Southwell, Stamford and West Bridgford.
In all, more than 50 teams have signed up to this year’s Prima Tiger Cup, but there is still time for your club to enter.
Lutterworth RFC will host the second festival on Sunday, November 6, the Eastern Counties festival will be held at Swaffham on Sunday, November 13 before the final festival at Stoke RFC on Sunday, November 20.
The winning teams from each festival will qualify for the knockout stages of the Prima Tiger Cup, the quarter-finals of which will be held at Welford Road before Tigers host Clermont Auvergne in the Heineken Cup in December.
Tigers will also invite eight other clubs from the regional festivals to take part in the sister competition, the Prima Tiger Bowl, at Welford Road before Tigers play Aironi Rugby in the Heineken Cup.
Harrison, a former England Under-20 international, said: “It is a really good competition and for those that make it to Welford Road, it is good for young players to have a taster of playing in such a great ground.”
To find out more or to enter a team, contact Prima Tiger Cup organiser Eric Barker by emailing [email protected] or phone the Tigers community department on 0844 856 1880.
