Banavie notches up double victory in inter-schools tag rugby tournament
Banavie Primary School made it a double in last Wednesday’s inter-school tag rugby tournament, being the only team to win all their pool games to take victory in the P4/5 and P6/7 categories.
The tournament was hosted by Lochaber Rugby Club in conjunction with Active Schools and PE teachers.
For the first time, the high school touch rugby competition had separate girls’ and boys’ categories, rather than mixed teams, reflecting a growing interest in girls rugby.
Lochaber High School won in both categories, although the games were all tight and no one team won all their games.
The girls’ round robin competition came down to points difference with second place going to Mallaig High School.
In the boys’ event, Ardnamurchan beat Lochaber in their first game, but lost in the second round of matches, giving Lochaber overall victory.
It was wonderful to see the event take place again after a hiatus of two years. The schools embraced the event, with pupils travelling from as far away as Inverie and Kilchoan.
Forty-three Lochaber teams took part, from 24 schools, both primary and secondary.
In the P4/5 category, small schools from Ardnamurchan punched well above their weight, with two teams from the peninsula making it through to the semi-finals.
Banavie, the only team to win all their pool games, carried on to beat a combined Lochaline/ Ardgour team in the first semi-final by just one try.
Caol beat Acharcle by three tries to one. The final was another close game with Banavie beating a good Caol Primary School team after a golden try scored in extra time.
In the P6/7 tournament, there were clear winners from three of the four pools, with Inverlochy and Banavie winning all their games and the Arisaig/Lady Lovat/Inverie team coming away with three wins and a draw.
The final pool saw Acharacle and Caol winning all their other games until they came face to face. In an extremely tight game, that could have gone either way, Acharacle scored one extra try to go through to the semis.
The final saw Banavie face down the combined might of West Lochaber in the form of the combined Arisaig/Lady Lovat/Inverie team, winning by three tries to nil.
Pauline Donaldson from
Lochaber Rugby Club commented: ‘It’s been great to see so many youngsters playing rugby and so many smiling faces.
‘We look forward to new players inspired by the event coming along to rugby at the club in Banavie on a Saturday morning.
‘Thanks go to all the Lochaber primary and secondary schools for attending; to the referees from Lochaber Rugby Club who worked hard all day, many of them taking a day off work to do so; to High Life Highland’s Active Schools team and the PE and school staff, without whom this event could not take place.’