Want to break a rugby world record?

Now here is an opportunity for any well organised rugby club, or school, or any other large-ish group wanting a bit of publicity and maybe a chance to raise some sponsorship money.

A great way to achieve these aims is to set a World Record. Trouble is that this is normally quite hard, if not dangerous, requiring skill, talent, ability, training etc. etc. But maybe not always.

There is a record for the World's Largest Rugby Scrum. You may have thought that this was limited to eight players per side, but no - Leamington Spa RFC set a new record last month (with the help of the BBC) with a scrum including 361 "players", beating the around 200 that had attempted the same thing in Ashbourne (Ireland) a few days before, and the 68 New Zealanders who set the first record.

Actually, the word "players" is stretching things a bit as, apart maybe from the two front rows that make contact with each other, everyone else seems to be parents, grandparents, children, and anyone else capable of bending down and leaning on someone in front of them (in fact not even leaning - just vaguely touching seems to count).


Really - that is it. It sounds taxing - dangerous even - but watch the video (above) and you will see is that all you need are enough bodies, a modicum of organisation, and someone from Guinness World Records with a counter to check that the scrum "obeys the laws of the game" (personally I cannot find anything in the laws that remotely allows this, but what the heck - publicity is publicity), even though you sort of suspect that she really has no idea. I mean you'd think the very minimum qualification would be to be a rugby referee? Never mind - a record is a record.

So there you go. Simple. Forget four minute miles, 24 hour rugby matches, or power-lifting. Indeed forget any training at all. All you need is you and your club mates, family and friends, a rugby ball, a field, and within a couple of hours you too could all be Guinness World Record holders.