It ended up a wet and windy evening at Deramore Park as the 5th round of the IRFU Volkswagen Mixed Tag completed it’s penultimate round. However, the conditions only served to add to the excitement as the competition approaches it conclusion.

Premiership

Results

• Sheep Taggers 12 Friesian Taggers 25
• Hash Tags 15 Tag My Pitch Up 8

The Premiership games proceeded vaguely in line with our predictions.

The Friesians were quick off the mark with Nottingham Rugby bound Michael Stronge and Jonny Small to the fore. Zahra Bonnar reaped the reward with four tries to take her to the top of the try scorers table.

Sheep Taggers had their moments with Neve Jones, Andrew Simpson and Connor Phillips all crossing for a brace each but the Friesians were just too slick all over the pitch

An early burst from the HashTags against TMPU set them up for a winner takes all against the Friesians next week. A powerful game from Andrew Kelly saw the Grosvenor player cross three times and he was ably supported by six points from Jordan Gamble which kept the HashTags in front.

The always impressive Hazel Jordan did bag six points, from 2 tries for TMPU, which kept the score line close until the HashTags pulled away with a strong final quarter.

Standings

TEAM	P	W	D	PD	BP	PTS
Friesian Taggers	2	2	0	26	0	8
HashTags	2	1	0	4	1	5
Sheep Taggers	2	1	0	-10	0	4
Tag My Pitch Up	2	0	0	-20	0	0

Championship

Results

• Carlingford Knights 19 Galacticos 14
• Taggers Bat 40 Space Cadets 5

We thought that it would be a close one between Carlingford and the Galacticos and so it proved with Carlingford only scoring one more try than their opponents. However, their better conversion rate saw them get two more women players over the line, those extra four points keeping their noses in front. Carlingford’s Paul Quinn and Galacticos’ Stephen Beasant led the scoring, with 4 tries each.

A rampant performance from Queen’s captain Rachel McIlroy, ably supported by Ally McIlwaine, saw Taggers Bay romp to a comfortable win. The dynamic duo accounted for 33 of their teams 40 points and, with a further six points coming from Sara Houston, the Bay recorded a superb 93% conversion rate.

This competition looks like it will go down to points difference next week and Taggers Bay may have already made the decisive move.

Standings

TEAM	P	W	D	PD	BP	PTS
Taggers Bay	2	1	1	35	0	6
Carlingford Knights	2	1	1	5	0	6
Galacticos	2	0	1	-5	1	3
Space Cadets	2	0	1	-35	0	2

Conference

Results

• Tag Heures 19 Flatliners 15
• Derryvolgie Halss 12 Runaways 8

The excitement in the Conference continues as no one seems to want to give Tag Heures an easy time.

Flatliners and Heures went into this game knowing that a win would give them a commanding lead in the table but neither side found the decisive edge leaving it all up in the air for the final round.

Conor Gilloway crossed for four tries for the Flatliners with Ryan Trainor and Louise O’Toole chipping in with a brace each. Heures replied through Chris Clarke and Sinead Redmond who each crossed for a hattrick.

Derryvolgie Halss also find themselves well in contention after picking up their first big W following a narrow win against Runaways.

This game was nip and tuck until Derryvolgie pulled clear in the last 10 minutes, the main difference between the teams was a hattrick from the Halss Daniel Moorcroft, after three pointers from Anna Stanfield and Megan Henry were cancelled out by the same from the Runaways’ Nichole Murchan and Sophie Matthews.

Standings

TEAM	P	W	D	PD	BP	PTS
Tag Heures	2	1	1	5	0	6
Flatliners	2	1	1	5	0	6
Derryvolgie Halss	2	1	0	-1	1	5
Runaways	2	0	0	-9	2	2

Leading Scorers

Plenty of excitement left in the Leading Try Scorers Table as we go into the final week of competition.

There were 104 tries scored this week with Rachel McIlroy running wild for an astonishing seven tries for Taggers Bay.

However, it wasn’t quite enough to get McIlroy onto the leader board which sees the Friesian Taggers Zahra Bonnar edge ahead by a single try.

The male players have come back somewhat in recent weeks with Derryvolgie Halss Mark Coughlin leading the charge with 12 tries to date.

You can view the leading scorers in the table below.

PLAYER	TEAM	PTS
Zahra Bonnar	Friesian Taggers	14
Rosie Murchan	Carlingford	13
Mark Coughlin	Derryvolgie	13
Alexandra McIlwaine	Taggers Bay	12
Joanne Orr	Friesian Taggers	12
Suzie Rodgers	Hashtags	12
Connor Phillips	Sheep Taggers	12
Stephen Beasant	Galacticos	12
Hazel Jordan	Tag My Pitch Up	11
Benny Glendinning	Tag Heuers	11
Conor Gilloway	Flatliners	11
Kerry McIlwaine	Sheep Taggers	10
Paul Quinn	Carlingford	10
Hannah Lewis	Hashtags	9
Katherine Boyd	Friesian Taggers	9
Sinead Redmond	Tag Heuers	9
Jonny Small	Friesian Taggers	9
Paddy Quinn	Carlingford	9

• 22 Aug 2020 at 17:23. Corrected scores showing against Tag Heures players.

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