Intro:

Snow, ice, extreme cold temperatures, and punishing rugby action.

Hundreds of players risked frost bite in the central Finland town of Jyvaskyla this weekend to take part in an annual Snow Rugby Tournament.

Script:

Rugby season in Finland throws a few extra factors into the mix.

If you want to score a slide tackle on this pitch, you've got to be prepared to get a little snowy.

Hundreds of players risked frost bite in the central Finland town of Jyvaskyla this weekend to take part in an annual Snow Rugby Tournament.

The seven-a-side teams played on uneven pitches of compacted snow.

And it takes a dedicated player to manoeuvre the tough surface pitted with ice and varying snow levels.

SOUNDBITE: (English)

SUPERCAPTION: Antsu Devenyi, Helsinki Rugby Club

"The conditions out here in the snow are very tricky, because it depends on the pitch. In some part of the pitch there might be deeper snow, some parts shallow. And it requires a little bit of conditioning before you come here, doing some small physio on your legs, because your ankles, knees and hips are really really struggling here, because also the tempo is slowed down so tackling are a little bit different than on a grass pitch, so it's quite interesting

Eighteen men's and eight women's teams took part in this year's tournament.

Whilst six-nations rugby sides France and Ireland cancelled last month's game due to frozen conditions in Paris, these hardcore players weren't going to let a little thing like cold put them off.

SOUNDBITE: (English)

SUPERCAPTION: Antsu Devenyi, Helsinki Rugby Club

"For Finns the weather is fine, because we're sort of used to this weather already. But we still require a couple of layers of clothes on. Hat, gloves. So we need to dress up well. It's minus 5 degrees (centigrade). Thank God we've got sun today so it helps. But when it gets to 5 o'clock it gets a little bit nippy, even for us"

Someone get the poor men a cup of tea.