Medals galore for Buccs players at Atlantic Youth Touch Cup

The 2025 Atlantic Youth Touch Cup was the largest international Touch Rugby tournament ever held in Ireland with 45 international youth teams from 12 countries descending on the University of Limerick recently. And it was a very successful one for Buccaneers Touch Rugby players with 12 players taking part and eight winning medals!

There were three Buccaneers players on the Ireland Mixed 18s Touch Rugby team that won the Gold Medal beating Wales 7-6 in an exciting final in Limerick. Aoife Purtill, John Finnan and Philip Finnan all lined out and all three players scored in the final. The Buccs trio were by far the top three try scorers for the MX18s scoring a whopping 40 tries between them over nine games. John was top scorer with 16 while Aoife and Philip both got 12 each.

Buccaneers Touch Rugby extends massive congratulations to Aoife, John and Philip for this great achievement. All three players have been playing touch rugby internationally for Ireland at under-15 and under-18 level since 2022.

The Mixed 20s including Buccs' Jack Gordon won Silver in Limerick going down 10-9 to England in an epic final. The MX20s reached the final with a 100 per cent record having previously beaten England twice. Jack scored his first international try in the pool game against England and also scored against South Africa. Well done to Jack who first debuted for Ireland in 2024 and has come on in leaps and bounds since then.

The Boys U15s won the bronze medal beating Lebanon 10-2 in the third place match and they had the biggest Buccaneers contingent with four players; Ryan and Finn Copelin, Jayden Quinn and Jack Delaney. Jayden got three tries while Finn also got on the scoresheet. All four players were making their international debuts so well done to them for acquitting themselves so well.

Buccs also had representation on the Girls 18s team with Aoibhín Tynan and Niamh Purtill lining out. Both girls were key players for their team, lining out in the middle positions and scoring three tries between them. Aoibhín and Niamh have been playing international touch since 2022 and so are very experienced at this level.

The Boys 18s had Buccs' Alex Connor in their line-up and finished 4th in the competition, going down to Wales 13-6 in the bronze medal game. The B18s qualified for the bronze medal game with victories over Ukraine and Portugal. Alex got one try against Portugal.

The Mixed 15s, who included Cooper So and Mollie Quinn, sister of Jayden, in their line-up performed very well, finishing 5th overall. In the pool stages, they had wins against Belgium, Portugal and England Lions. They were unfortunate not to go further after a narrow defeat to Scotland in the quarter-final. However, they recovered impressively from that disappointment to beat Portugal and Belgium again for fifth place. Mollie clocked up an impressive five tries in the competition while Cooper got over for three tries.

Buccaneers Touch Rugby also had their first international referee during the Atlantic Cup with Feidhlim Byrne taking charge of the England vs Cayman Islands Mixed 15s game. Congratulations to Feidhlim on this distinction.

Buccaneers can be very proud of all these fantastic young players and referees who represented their country so well in Limerick. Anyone who wishes to emulate the Atlantic Cup stars and give touch rugby a try is welcome to join in the training sessions at Buccaneers RFC any Monday evening at 7pm.

*See more photos in this week's Westmeath Independent.