Olympic spirit at rugby club

LURGAN Rugby Club hosted a fun Tag rugby tournament last weekend as part of the national Join In Local Sport initiative to celebrate the 2012 Olympics.

Eight teams competed for the honour of winning the inaugural event. Group one saw Shankill Church, Knocknamuckley BB, Lurgan College and Lurgan U19s battle it out for a place in the final. While group two was an all club affair with Lurgan firsts & seconds pitted against a youthful under 17s and an experience over 35 contingent.

The tournament started with a couple of upsets. On pitch one Shankill Church defeated Lurgan College, but on pitch two bragging rights went to Lurgan seconds as they threw down a marker defeating the Firsts. As the group stage progressed the surprise of the tournament were the boys from Knocknamuckley BB who topped group one with two wins and a draw. Group two also had a clear winner with the Seconds recording three wins on the trot.

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In the play-offs Lurgan College defeated the over 35s 3-1 to claim seventh place. The battle for sixth place was a narrow win for Lurgan Firsts over the U19s. After a brief rest the team from Shankill were matched with the under 17s. Both teams had recorded a win and a draw in the group; however the 17s had scored 10 tries to the 6 claimed by the church outfit. In the end the Shankill crew pipped the youngsters 5-3 to claim third place.

With all the other places decided Knocknamuckley BB faced the Mighty Twos in the final. Both teams were well organised with patience being the order of the day. The Seconds ran out 2-1 winners with Leor Ovadia and Craig Harrison getting on the scoresheet and Michael Gough pulling one back for Knocknamuckley.

The committee thanked Ryan Gough for organising the event and David Fleming who manned the barbeque all afternoon. The event was a great success and many hope to see it become an annual event. Lurgan Firsts are back in action this Saturday at the Randalstown XV tournament and players are asked to meet at the club at 11am.