MULLINGAR RUGBY FOOTBALL CLUB

BUILDING A COMMUNITY SINCE 1925.

MULLINGAR RUGBY FOOTBALL CLUB

BUILDING A COMMUNITY SINCE 1925.

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OUR TAG RUGBY CHAMPIONSHIP RETURNS JUNE 7th FOR 10th SEASON

May 11, 2018

By Finian Coghlan


Tag and the craic is back in Cullion for a 10th Summer – newbies welcome!


Back in the depths of the 20th century, after an ignominious schools defeat saw us in a pique of awful gloom, a very wise coach called us all together to return us to the path and rekindle our passion. He explained how this was not the end but very much a beginning, and that the very next victory for each of us would go a long way to extinguishing this particular demon.

Of course he was right. We were young, with very short memories, and the collective trauma was very soon left in the rear view mirror. But there was another piece of advice he passed on that day that stuck hard and fast, and still has a profound resonance to this day. Knowing that very soon all of us would be scattered to the four winds as decreed by the desiccated nature of the 80s, he reassured us we were all at an advantage in re-addressing the loneliness of our new surrounds.

“It’s easy, lads. Just join a local club and you’ll have pals for life,” he told us.

I was reminded of this priceless pearl last week when I heard that the highly successful Tag Rugby Championship was returning to Shay Murtagh Park on the Castlepolllard Road for a 10th season next month.



For those who don’t know anything about it, Tag was invented in Australia in the Eighties to keep the skills of rugby alive during the close season. However, it very quickly developed a whole new life of its own because its central tenet of non-contact allowed the opposite sexes to play alongside each other for the first time ever in competitive sport. It also had one more enormous trick up its inclusivity sleeve – a female try is worth three times the value of a chap’s -  which all but eliminated blokey ball-hogging as teams now sought to set off their winged women. The latest Championship kicks off at the rugby club on June 7th at 7.30pm, and applications are still being accepted from both genders on 086-189 3131, on the club website www.mullingarrfc.ie or on Facebook at Mullingar Tag Rugby.

You can enter as a team (minimum of 10), or individually and await the very popular lottery allocation. For the newbies, there is a series of introductions every Monday night at 8pm up to the start of the tournament, and for the first time anybody over the age of 16 is allowed to play. As an indication of the competitions’ inclusivity, last year’s winners went by the delightfully unthreatening name of the Super Fairy Princess and Rainbow Unicorns, however with a Kiwi, a double Leinster winner and a former Irish international in their midst they may have extracted a modicum of micturant from the organising committee.

So, if you’re new in town and looking to broaden your social horizons and pal zone, all you need is a pair of shorts a couple of quid and a mild modicum of can-do before submitting your name to Will Macken before allocation and the craic commences.



(Our Men in the Middle)

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086 189 3131


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