AN IRISH QUIDDITCH team is set to travel to Poland this weekend to compete in an international tournament of the Harry Potter-inspired sport.

The Dublin Draíochta Dragons are one of three quidditch teams that play in Ireland – the other two are based in Athlone and Limerick.

Players describe the sport as a “mix of rugby and dodgeball” and involves the team members sitting on a broom while five balls are in play on the pitch.

Each team can tackle players on the other team while beaters hurl balls at players to knock them out of the game.

This weekend, 16 teams from across Europe will compete in what is described as “the equivalent of the Euros in football,” by head coach and captain, Philip Moore.

“Poland is the European quidditch cup and it’s like our club Euro Championships, and our Dublin team qualified after beating Limerick in January,” he said.

“We’re really excited to get stuck in and our last tournament was last month in Manchester.

“We did phenomenal in Manchester and outplayed anything we’d ever done before – we were in form and focused so we’re hoping we can carry that on through to Poland.”

Moore said the sport originated in the US when college students decided to replicate the game from the Harry Potter books written by JK Rowling.

It has since become a competitive sport and reached Irish shores over two years ago, he said.

“It goes back to around 2008 in the US when a few guys in college in US were watching the HP movies and were fans and said ‘well why can’t we play it in real life?’.

“When they started off it was very different from the way it is now and some of the rules didn’t match up, so the sport refined itself over the years, and is still going through that process today.”

Some 13 players are set to head to Poland later this week where they will play their first tournament against the Copenhagen Hafnia Harpies.