More than a hundred first year pupils from schools across North Lanarkshire took part in the Magnificent Sevens schools tag rugby festival at the Ravenscraig Regional Sports Facility.

The event was organised by North Lanarkshire Leisure, and many of those taking part had never played the sport before.

Scottish rugby legend Gavin Hastings came along to support the event and he was clearly impressed with what he saw. "I've really enjoyed watching this today; there's been some great rugby skills on display today.

"This is a fantastic facility and tag rugby is a great fun way to introduce rugby to young people. We need to grow the sport at the grass routes level and events like today can only help to do that.

"When I first started playing rugby, girls weren't allowed to play - so it was really encouraging to see so many girls playing today."

Provost of North Lanarkshire Tom Curley thanked everyone involved with organising the event. He paid particular thanks to Scaffolding Scotland, Webster Power Products, Strathmore Water and Highland Spring for sponsoring the event.

The magnificent sevens rugby festival took place on Wednesday 10 November. And everyone who took part was given information on the three rugby clubs in North Lanarkshire Dalziel RFC, Waysiders Drumpellier RFC and Cumbernauld RFC.