Touch rugby
It has been a busy fortnight for Buccaneers Touch Rugby players on both the domestic and the international front.
In recent times, Buccaneers played Connacht rivals, Racoon West, in Game 1 of this year’s provincial Touch Series at the Athlone Regional Sports Centre. The Galway side travelled with a strong line-up and were ultimately successfully, winning 6-3 on the night, the home team's scores coming from Andy Moran, Paul Gavin and Bobby Pears.
Meanwhile, on the international front, the Irish Wolfhounds Men 45s team travelled to Coimbra in Portugal for the 2021 European Senior Cup.
This event, which caters for men's and women's masters teams, has become a popular fixture on the European Touch calendar. The fact that it was the first international level tournament in two years and was held in warm, sunny conditions was a massive boost for all competing teams. It is also an important competition in the build-up to the 2022 European Touch Championships.
The Wolfhounds started the tournament poorly with consecutive defeats to the Welsh Wizards and the Scottish Stags on the opening day. Victories over the Portugal Foxes and the Swiss Pigs on day two of the tournament clinched a place in the last four.
The Wolfhounds duly beat the Scottish Stags 4-3 in the semi-final and faced the Welsh Wizards again in the ultimate fixture, the game ending 4-4 at the end of the 40 minutes with Buccaneers’ Denis O’Connor among the scorers.
The game went to sudden death extra time and it was the Welsh who blinked first with Ireland’s Frank Ennis dummying the Welsh cover to score the winning touchdown. There were great celebrations at the final whistle at what was the first ever international success for most of the players.
