A great days was had at the weekend in the picturesque village of Kilkee on the Atlantic coast of county Clare. The seaside village played host to its second I.T.R.A. Beach Tag event and there can be no doubt that the event was another fantastic day out in the Tag Rugby Calendar. With Teams travelling from places such as Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Clare, Galway and Athlone, the standard of Tag was extremely high with strong teams coming through in every grade. Before the Tagging began on Saturday there was a very competitive Killer Pool Tournament in Myles Creek. Teams met to shake off the stiffness from the long drive down and compete in the mixed competition. The eventual winners were Damien and Denise who collected for themselves the €150 cash prize money. The next day the Cup competition was fiercely contested by the 8 teams who got to the quarter finals with 1 quarter final 1 semi-final and the final all being decided by an extra time sudden death golden try. At the other end of the scale the Super bowl competition was a dogged affair with Hookers on Tour finding an extra bit of strength to get past the Sheep taggers on a score line of 5 points to 1.
Damien and Denise - Killer Pool Winners (€75 each!)
The Bowl competition was very tight with the numerically disadvantaged Shag Tortes desperately unlucky in the first of the Semi-finals, but when the final whistle went it was Tags on the First Date going through to meet Arson Fire who themselves had overcome Tag That in a close game. Arson Fire took command of the Final and made no mistake winning by a clear margin at 5 points to 0.
Competition in the Plate was strong with the Plate winners from the Sandymount competition Luas Cannons in the mix up again. In the Quarter Finals however they were shocked by the close to home team from Ennis, Tag Her and Try Her, who knocked them out on a score line of 6 points to 1. The third quarter final also threw up an exciting cross company battle when the HP Sauce from Galway met the HP Leixlip Lions from Kildare. Like the 1998 All Ireland Football final the Galwegians emerged victorious in this one all be it by only a single point. The Skinny Dogs overcame HP sauce by two points to book there place in the final but Tag Her and Try Her were on a march at this stage and it proved a bridge too far for the Dogs. Tag Her and Try Her who were unlucky to be drawn in the group of death at this year’s Pig and Porter can gain from respite from this event as they collected the 2011 Kilkee Beach Tag Plate.
Tag Her And Try Her - Plate Winners
The Cup Quarter Finals saw d’Beers, Tag Hoors, Crash Tag Dummies and Bircroft Panthers overcome Motivators, Bag Her and Tag her, The Dragons and the UC Vikings respectively. In the first semi-final the Panthers swept past the Crash Tag Dummies on a score line of 4 0. It seemed as though we had seen the match of the day when d’Beers came from 4 nil down to draw level at 4 all on the brink of full time. They then went on in extra time to grab a place in the final by scoring a golden try right in the corner. But the best was yet to come as the final ended in a draw as well. This time in a reversal of fortune it was the Panthers who scored the golden try when birthday boy Michael Jones raced clear to touch down in the corner.
With the Panthers win in Kilkee they are on target to be the first team EVER in I.T.R.A. History to win a Grand Slam in the Beach Tag/Festival series. With only one event left, surely there is a team out there who can stop this from happening. Register now for Banna!!