Buccaneers Touch Rugby travelled to Portlaoise RFC on Saturday last for the opening round of this year’s Development Touch Series (DTS ).
The facilities at the County Laois venue were excellent and stood up extremely well to heavy overnight rain.
Buccaneers had a busy afternoon with seven matches in all. The first game of the afternoon was a Connacht derby against tournament favourites Racoon West from Galway. Buccaneers failed to achieve in game momentum and succumbed to a 2-0 defeat.
The second game was against the hosts Portlaoise and Buccaneers put in a much-improved performance, winning with an emphatic 3-0 victory with tries from Alex Connor, Cian Copelin and Paul Gavin.
The games were coming with regularity and Buccaneers backed up their win against Portlaoise with a 4-2 victory over a good East Coast Touch team from Greystones. This was Buccaneers best performance of the day their boxing move working a treat and leading to tries for Ben Porter (2 ), Aoibhin Tynan and Alex Connor.
Buccaneers were caught by surprise in game four when they faced surprise packets Barnhall. The Leixlip side took an early 2-0 lead and although Buccaneers fought back strongly with tries from Alex, Ben and Aoibhin, Barnhall triumphed 5-3.
Buccaneers made a swift return to victory with a 6-0 win against the Barbarians in the next game, the tries coming from Anthony Quinn, Cian Copelin (2 ), Jack Gordon, Alex and Ben.
The penultimate game of the day turned out to be a tight battle against the Marley Park Tipsters (MPT ).
The Tipsters opened the scoring before Ben equalised for Buccaneers. MPT hit the front again before ‘MVP’ Molly Copelin equalised with a well deserved try. Alex seemed to have won the game for Buccaneers when he dodged the cover to touch down but the wily Tipsters scored in the corner before the finish, a 3-3 draw being a fair result.
Buccaneers qualified for the third place play-off and a rematch with Barnhall. Again, Buccaneers struggled to deal with their pace and unpredictability and the Kildare side sealed third place with a 4-0 win.
The Marley Park Tipsters won the tournament outright beating Racoon West in the final so congratulations to MPT.
A very enjoyable day overall, credit must go to Dawn Smith and Michelle Mulcahy of the ITA and John Fingleton of Portlaoise Touch for organising the tournament.
Buccaneers will now look forward to DTS Round 2 in Lahinch to take place in a fortnight.
Buccaneers - Feidhlim Byrne, Anthony Quinn, Gustavs Mittenbergs, Jack Gordon, Ben Porter, Paul Gavin, Molly Copelin, Aoibhin Tynan, Niamh Purtill, Cian Copelin, Alex Connor.
