ERGS Senior Ladies rugby team retained the Ulster Schools Rugby Tag Cup at Cookstown. The same team that lifted the Ulster Schools 7s Cup two weeks ago at Kingspan were in again in fine form on their way to victory.

The Tag competition was contested by eight teams from throughout the Province with ERGS being crowned champions after four hard games.

The game of Tag is a non-contact version, played by teams with up to 10 a-side.

Players wear two tags around their waist and if pulled off by the opposition, it is deemed to have been a tackle and the ball carrier must pass or stop.

Each team gets up to six tackles before the ball goes to the opposition, similar to rugby league.

ERGS and their predecessor the Collegiate have a strong record in this competition, winning the cup 10 out of the last 11 years.

Their first match was against St Patrick’s, where ERGS ran in six tries, with no scores against them.

Next up was Loretto from Letterkenny, where they won with another six tries, but conceded one try.

The final match of the pool was against Wellington College.

This was a tougher match, with Wellington having some strong and fast runners, however the ERGS defence was organised and efficient and they eventually came out winners by three tries to nil.

The two pool winners played each other in the final, with Dungannon Royal being the other pool winners.

Dungannon Royal are the only school to have ever beaten ERGS in this competition two years ago.

Dungannon, who had several Ulster U18 7s players, proved to be a match in the first five minutes, but the hours of training and dedication from this ERGS team started to pay off.

The Dungannon side could not match the tempo of the game set by ERGS and gaps in their defence started to appear.

After a tense first half the ERGS led one try to nil.

In the second half, ERGS upped the speed of the game again and were rewarded with more gaps in the Dungannon defence.

With two more tries, the coaching staff could relax a little and enjoy the last few minutes of the match. ERGS winning 3-0.

ERGS were the only school to have entered two teams into this competition.

The ‘Junior’ team is made up of the younger members of the ERGS Rugby Club, getting the opportunity to play against the older girls without being disadvantaged by their size or power.

They drew their final play off match and finished a joint seventh in the competition, with tries from Nieve Johnston, Victoria Benson, Chloe Moore and Rachel Mullan.

ERGS lifted the Tag trophy for the 10th time and are the first school to have lifted the two ladies’ trophies in the same season.