Buccaneers quartet shine in European Touch Championships
Four Buccaneers Touch Rugby players returned last week from the 2026 European Touch Championships in Vichy, France, and all four certainly made a huge impact with their teams if the scoring charts are anything to go by.
The four Buccs players contributed 25 tries in total with both Niamh Purtill and Paul Gavin finishing top scorers for their respective teams with ten tries each.
Niamh Purtill took the field as Buccs’ first ever Ireland Mixed Open Touch international in what was a very youthful Ireland squad with 11 players 20 years old or younger. Niamh proved to be a very prolific scorer for the MXO with ten tries in total against Switzerland, Jersey (4), England, Italy (2) and Belgium (2), helping the team to a sixth place finish.
Niamh has been playing at Junior level for Ireland since 2022 and this was her first senior international tournament. She was one of three 17-year-olds on the Ireland MXO squad and will now travel to Warwick next week with the Ireland Mixed 18s squad for the Junior European Touch Championships.
Paul Gavin and Nigel So were on the Men’s 40s team that finished in seventh place with wins over Scotland, Portugal and Spain. Both players are seasoned veterans at this level now having been part of Ireland Men’s 40s squads since 2019. Paul scored against France and Italy (2), Spain (3), Portugal (2), Wales, Italy and Spain again. Nigel meanwhile scored tries against Portugal and Italy.
Meanwhile, Aoife Tyrrell was part of the Women’s 35s team that came very close to a Bronze Medal against France, leading 3-2 at half-time with Aoife among the scorers before France came back in the second half to win 6-4. Aoife weighed in with three tries in total, also scoring against Wales, and the Euroselect side.
Aoife has only been playing Touch only since 2024 although she has a background in sevens rugby, having played for Leinster.
Buccaneers Touch Rugby congratulates all four players who did the club proud in Vichy. Full match details and links to live streams of matches involving all three teams are at https://www.internationaltouch.org/events/euros/2026