MEMBERS of Minety RFC have written themselves into the Guinness Book of World Records for taking part in the world’s longest marathon game of rugby.

Six Minety players, Ben Collins, Matt Stone, Matt Chisholm, Matt Cross, Garin Garland, and Ben Langridge joined forces with players from Witney Rugby Club to form the Witney Barbarians to take on the RAF team

Horus in a gruelling and challenging game of rugby 7s, lasting more than 24 hours.

The teams came together in July last year to raise money for Cakes 4 Casualties, a charity which helped Minety and Horus team member Rob Budgen, who was badly injured in a parachute training accident in the US in January 2016.

The players had their sights set on a game lasting 30 hours, but that soon became an impossible task.

“We knew we had to play for at least 24 hours to be in with a chance of setting a record that the Guinness Book of Records would accept, so initially we started with a view to playing for 30 hours non-stop,” Mr Collins explained.

“However, after 12 hours we all knew that 30 hours was way beyond us and so we settled with establishing a world record of just over 24 hours.

“It was great when we had supporters to cheer us on, and a lot came down to give us support, but at 3.30am in the morning, with the rain hammering down and no one about, it was pretty depressing.

“The main problem was the sheer mental and

physical tiredness that we all felt.”

After months of wondering whether they played enough hours of rugby, they have finally found out their hard work has paid off and they can cross off breaking a world record from their bucket lists.

Mr Collins, said: “It was unbelievably hard and we would have been devastated if we had not succeeded in breaking the record.

“It’s certainly one of the most challenging and uncomfortable experiences of my life.”