Scotty's Rugby Players Set World Records 03.06.13
544 Rugby players mainly made up of either serving or retired forces personnel have set two new world records at Welford Road, the home of Premiership Champions Leicester Tigers.
There were emotional scenes at exactly 12.37 on Saturday lunchtime, when the record for the longest ever single game of Rugby was broken. The two squads of 22 players had begun at 11.15 the previous day and stayed on the pitch in shifts for more than 25 hours, playing the equivalent of 19 back to back games , to claim a record previously held by a club in Cheshire. Not only that, but at 2AM they also passed the record score for a single game of Rugby. By the end, the two teams "Scotty's Little Soldiers" (828) and "British Forces" ( 1742 ) had notched a total of 2570 points from their epic game.
Speaking afterwards Nikki Scott, founder of the charity, which supports bereaved forces families in memory of her late husband Cpl Lee Scott in 2010, told British Forces News she could hardly believe what she had seen.
"Everyone gave their all, I wanted to go out and pick the boys up who could hardly walk after playing for so long".
She also payed tribute to all the people behind the scenes who made the game possible, including the dedicated team of physio staff who literally patched and bandaged up injured players throughout the game, so they could carry on.
Her charity has raised almost £1million since she founded it and its expected the marathon Rugby game will raise £60,000.
Many of the players were personnal friends of LCpl Mike Thacker, who died exactly twelve months ago following an IED explosion in Afghanistan . The Thacker trophy was presented to the Forces team, as match winners.
One of the players LCpl Robert Cooper,of 39 Engineer Regiment, said he was "absolutely shattered" after the marathon, but added it was nothing compared with the joy of being able to help the children coping with the loss of their dads. Dozens of families were there, with the children regularly running on the pitch with water during the game.
To qualify for the Guiness World Records, the match was played under strict conditions and the results will now be sent off for verification.