Club: Taggers roar to All Ireland Tag Championship.

The Taggers celebrate at the end of the final. Photo credit James Crombie (c) INPHO Photography (www.inpho.ie).

We were delighted to receive reports over the weekend that the FRU sponsored Mengal Taggers won the All Ireland Tag Competition on Saturday at Suttonians RFC.

Below is a report of how the Mengal Taggers won the Competition form team manager Gareth Bronte.

Game 1 v the Bircroft Panthers, defending champions. Lost 4 – 0 tight game solid defence but just couldn’t score.

Game 2 v the Wolfpack. Won 12- 4 super performance including a hatrick from captain Christine Henning

Game 3 v the Tic Tags. Won 10 – 9, blistering start racing into an 8- 0 lead and we went asleep and going into the final minute were 9-8 down! a super try in the dying seconds took the game to extra time golden try and Stuart Nelson broke from halfway to win the game 10-9

Game 4 v Temple Fire, Won 9-1 with a win required to ensure a top 2 place in the round robin league and a place in the Championship final, a superb performance was put in and put us in great form for the final

The Final v Bircroft Panthers, Won 7-6 in Extra Time.

In a repeat of last years final Mengal were full of confidence but went 1-0 down early on and but we then got it back to 1-1 with a well worked try.

A brief lack of concentration allowed The Panthers to score a girls try to go 4-1 up. With 2 mins remaining the score stood at 6-2 and Mengal looked down and out but a neat try from Stuart Nelson brought the score to 6-3 and Mengal knew if they could get a girls try it would take the game to extra time.

With seconds on the clock some fine play from Scott Nelson and Philip Lunn put Imogen Porter in in the corner to level the scores.

On the restart the Referee called Golden Try meaning the first team to score would be crowned champions.

The Panthers gathered the restart and attacked the Mengal line after a couple of phases Scott Nelson raced out of the line and intercepted a stray Panthers pass, he was chased back and didn’t have the speed to finish it but on his shoulder in support was James Cleland to race to the line and spark mayhem amongst the Mengal Taggers and supporters.

The victory capped an amazing season for the Mengal Taggers, being crowned Spring League Champions, Summer League Champions, New World Record Holders and All Ireland Champions.

The Mengal Taggers would like to thank everyone who has helped them this year particularly The Bronte Steak House and Shoefair Sports

Squad: Christine Henning (C), Imogen Porter, Nikki Caughey, Chloe Lopez-Colclough, Jemma Jackson, Scott Nelson, Stuart Nelson, Brian O’Shaughnessy, James Cleland, Philip Lunn, Colin Hamilton, Neil Adams, Christopher Allen