Athlone Regional Sports Centre was the venue as Buccaneers men’s touch rugby hosted Racoon West from Galway in the second round of this year’s league division one competition.
Buccs started strongly with Sam Radebe putting the home team in front before Colm McNally scored with his very first touch in a Buccs shirt. Sam added another score, getting on the end of a pass from Paul Gavin after a well-executed ‘32’ move to put Buccs 3-1 ahead and in the driving seat.
Racoon West fought back with three tries either side of the break to take a 4-3 lead before Buccs levelled it when Ben Wolfe scooped and got into the end zone before passing to Gustavs Mitenbergs to score.
The game ended 4-4 and proceeded to a two-minute extra time drop-off period where both sides went to four-a-side. Racoon went ahead before Paul Gavin equalised for Buccs and so both teams dropped down to three-a-side as the game went to sudden death.
Buccs youthful trio of Alex Connor, Sam Radebe and Cian Copelin had to defend their line for two sets of possession and a winning score for Racoon West seemed almost inevitable. However, they put in a heroic shift to eventually force a turnover. Not for the first time this year, Cian Copelin proved to be the hero as he took off up the right wing and outpaced the cover to resolve the issue and secure a 6-5 victory for Buccs.
Buccaneers - Ben Wolfe, Paul Gavin, Gustavs Mitenbergs, Nigel So, Sam Radebe, Dion Chitanda, Jack Gordon, Kevin Brady Barry, Anthony Quinn, Feidhlim Byrne, Colm McNally, Alex Connor, Cian Copelin.
Irish Touch Men’s Interpros
Buccaneers were also well represented in the historic first ever Irish touch men’s interpros.on Saturday last at Energia Park, Donnybrook. Dion Chitanda, Paul Gavin and Jack Gordon took their places on the Connacht squad, Paul getting on the scoresheet with a try against Munster.
Connacht narrowly missed out on a bronze medal going down to Leinster 6-5 after a ferocious encounter. Munster took the cup following their defeat of Ulster in the final. It was a fabulous day of high level elite touch rugby and a step up from club level.for all players involved.
It is expected that more Buccaneers touch players will get the opportunity to represent their provinces in the upcoming women’s and master’s interpros.
