Another Great VW Tag All-Ireland Success
Yet again, glorious sunshine complimented this wonderful Volkswagen Tag Rugby All-Ireland day at Old Belvedere RFC. Forty teams took to the pitches to contest titles in the Championship, Conference, Beginners and Vets Men grades.
If ever a budding player, team or even host club wanted an example of the correct spirit that games like Tag Rugby should be played, look no further than last Saturday. A great atmosphere was helped by the sheer sportsmanship and determination to have fun of the day’s participants.
Results-wise, we saw the Championship Cup final and Paul Flood trophy being won by Corinthians, who play their tag at Belfast Harlequins RFC. They defeated fellow Belfast team, Hashtags, 9-7 to take the spoils.
Limerick’s Patricks won the Championship Plate final by outscoring Malahide’s BOD Loves A Tryer 8-7, while the Bowl was won by Dundalk’s Carlingford Knights who beat Lurgan Lions 12-11 in another close encounter.
Belfast’s Waggy Races Rustlers put 10 over the seven points notched up by Kindacacophobic, a regular team at Donnybrook, to get their hands on the Conference Cup. It was a Dublin v Cork contest for the Conference Cup, with Suttonians and Swords’ own Douchetags beating Ballincollig’s Tagging Little Rascals, 9-8. For the Conference Bowl, Tag Bandits (Clontarf FC) put 12 up against Honeybadgers‘ (Waterford) two points.
The Beginners finals finished the day off with Clare Wolves (Garryowen FC) winning 9-7 in the Cup final versus No Women No Tag, who play in Summer Tag at this very venue. Trymon Easterby (Donnybrook) sculpted a steady progress graph, charting a climb from two losses at the beginning of the day to winning the Plate final against worthy opposition Allstate Allstars from Belfast. Malahide’s Only Here For The Party won a tight competition in the Bowl final, eventually beating Citi Trail Blazers of Lansdowne FC, 7-6.
In the Vets Men (over-33) Cup final, the favourites’ Tag Stars won the trophy 10-3 against Bective Sort Of. Last year’s Plate winners, FC Porco, lost the 2017 decider against All-Ireland debutants, Japan RWC 2019, 21-9.
Well done to all who took part. The games were close and great fun to watch. More of the same in the 2018 season, please!
Special thanks to our quality pool of referees who came from a wide range of host clubs across the four provinces. The quality of this participation programme starts right there. We also wish to thanks our sponsors Volkswagen who add so much to this, the only official IRFU Tag Rugby programme in Ireland.
Additionally, many thanks again to Deirdre Devitt and The Two Sisters for a very well-received menu of dishes and Glenisk who provided yoghurts to everyone present for the day.
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For any Volkswagen Tag-related queries, please email tag@irfu.ie.