The 3rd Lagan Cup was held today at Cherryvalley playing fields, Ravenhill road, Belfast. Ably hosted as always by the Ulster Titans RFC, and starting with a coolish rain, the tournament ended in full sunshine!
The teams taking part with roughly! 10 players a peice were, Ulster Titans, Civil Service, Malone Vikings, Newry Spur, Ophir, Newry 2, Malone 5’s, Malone 4’s, and Cooke.
The day began with Ulster Titans v Cooke. A one sided game with Cooke dominating throughout scoring 53 points. The Titans were to fair much better though against Newry 2’s ending 20 each. We were very impressed with the Ulster Titans, who have only been going for 3 years, and most of whoms team have only started playing since then or even more recently. To have fielded a side in their leagues and to have established and sustained The Lagan Cup is quite an achievement.
We caught up with the chairman Sean McEvoy, he said, ” There is no tournament like The Lagan Cup anywhere else in Ulster because our entrants are never top flight, and thats the way we like it. The teams that enter The Lagan Cup are there to enjoy fun social rugby. We would be delighted to extend an invitation to other clubs and look forward to staging the event again next year.”
Civil Service played Malone Vikings, and Ophir, losing one and winning one in a good overall display. Cooke won both their opening games and progressed to the Semi-Finals along with Newry Spur, Malone Vikings and Malone 5’s. Malone 4’s had a difficult day perhaps struggling from a lack of personnel, with Newry 2’s very much in the same boat. Ophir who host their own sevens had a difficult day perhaps suffering from a late saturday night! The spirit and fun from both these teams however was excellent. Every team participating gave there all, and enjoyed the rugby which is the most important thing!
Malone Vikings however were by far the most professional outfit. Out-scoring all there opponents even though the final was cut short by a nasty injury to a Newry Spur player. The lad sustained a nasty knee injury and we wish hime a speedy recovery. Many thanks also to him for lending his camera to intouch rugby, whos own camera battery did not last the course!!
Good to see the Malone Vikings lifting the honours, with many of there team having played top flight rugby not so long ago.
It was a pleasure to cover the Lagan cup, and a big thank you to the Ulster titans for making this possible.
We managed to get 279 pictures from all 13 games and you can view a slide show – Click Here
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Players.
Ulster Titans: D. Neil (c), F. chefcik, S. McEvoy, N. Davis, T. McMahon, A. Love, N. Henry, K. Bartlett, G. Lowry, S. Jeffrey, I. Hughes.
Newry Spur: C. Marshall (c), G. Madden, A. Marshall, C. Marshall, T. O’Hare, J. McCabe, A. McGovern, A. Fisher, D. Farrell.
Cooke: K. Michel, S. McClure (c), I. Anderson, N. Moore, M. Burns, D. King, J. Mawhinney, G. Millar, D. Maroe.
Ophir: S. Ferguson, J. Graham, P. McAuley, A. Davison, S. Keenan, J. Murphy (c), J. Milligan, R. Largey, D. Walker, D. O’Reilly.
Malone Vikings: R. Ferguson (c), L. Barlwo, T. Craig, S. Bamford, Z. Devine, J. McAllister, D. Sherman, R. Ferguson, P. Baird, R. Parsons, G. Hewitt, N. Borthistle.
Civil Service: N. Palmer, D. Cartland (c), B. Sturgeon, S. Ferguson, J. Kelly, A. Thompson, B. Scott, R. Campbell, B. Harper, R. Griffen.
Malone 4’s: Fitz, N. Thompson, R. Kane, D. Cochrane, A. Frazer, C. Allen, M. Lawlor, P. O’Hare.
Malone 5’s: Dominic, Conor, ali, Declan, Jonno, Sean, Jonny.
Newry: R. Carragher (c), D. Reilly, C. Horan, K. Kruzycki, D. Doyle, J. Mathews, G. McAlinden, D. Farrell, B. Morgan, B. Comisky.
