Buccaneers players impress in Touch Rugby interprovincial Championships.
The 2026 Men’s and Women’s Interprovincial Championships were the first major events of the Irish Touch Rugby Calendar and they took place in the Sport Ireland Campus on Saturday last. Buccaneers Touch Rugby club was heavily involved with no less than seven Buccs players selected across the two Connacht squads with one winning tournament MVP.
The Connacht Women’s team had Aoife Purtill, Aoibhín Tynan and Molly Copelin in their ranks and all three were key players for Connacht in their march to the final. Connacht started the day with a comprehensive 4-1 victory over Ulster with Aoife scoring two fine tries. They went down 3-2 to Munster in their second game in what was a tight battle. A 1-1 draw against Leinster in their third game secured Connacht a place in the final against Munster again.
The final proved to be a tight and tense encounter and ended 1-1 at full time with Aoife again getting the Connacht try. The game then went to a ‘drop-off’ with 2 minutes of extra time and each side dropping from 6 to 4 players. At this stage Munster, to their credit, took control and two further tries secured them the prized gold medal as Women’s Interprovincial Champions. Aoife Purtill was deservedly named Tournament MVP.
There were four Buccaneers players on the Connacht Men’s team with Jack Gordon, Ben Wolfe, Paul Gavin and Cian Copelin all lining out. Jack, Paul and Ben all had previous interpros experience in 2024 and 2025 while Cian was making his interprovincial debut. In what was a highly competitive championship with a strong London Irish squad joining the four Irish provinces, Connacht started well with a 2-2 draw against Leinster before going down 4-2 to eventual champions London Irish. Agonisingly for Connacht two narrow defeats, 2-1 against Munster and 5-3 against Ulster, knocked them out of contention. London Irish went on to beat Ulster 4-2 in the final. All the Buccs players acquitted themselves well with Cian Copelin in particular impressing in what was a very high standard of play with all games played at a ferociously high pace throughout. This will stand them in good stead for the club season ahead.
