LAOIS man Garrett Culliton got his hands on the Triple Crown recently when he took part in an energy sapping wheelchair rugby competition in Dublin.
The event, boasting a range of skills, saw the best players from Ireland and Britain take part in the Irish stage of the British League 2006.
They came from Nottingham, Newcastle and Cardiff to take on Culliton’s side in what proved to be a great weekend. Culliton, who is the Disability Officer with Laois Sports Partnership, is now encouraging people to take part of the growing sport.
The first match tipped off at 9am on Saturday morning and featured the home side against the Marauders from Nottingham. The match was a tight affair for the first three quarters with only a couple of points separating the sides but the more experienced Nottingham lads punished some handling errors in the final quarter and won the match comfortably by 44 goals to 31.
The match of the weekend and the best match in the league to date was the game between the Warriors and the Newcastle Bulls. It took a period of overtime to finally get a victor. The Bulls scored the winner in the final second of overtime to win by the narrowest of margins, 35-34.
The Warriors had a great win against the Pirates on Sunday, 43-27, to move them up to fifth place in the league.
The viewing public got the extra bonus of having their picture taken with the Triple Crown, which was brought to the venue by the Warriors new sponsor, Ulster Bank, who are committed to helping develop wheelchair rugby in Ireland over the next three years.
The following weekend saw the Warriors compete in the Bernd Best tournament in Cologne, Germany. This is the biggest club tournament in Europe and the Warriors won the Advanced League division in 2005, therefore gaining promotion to the Professional League this year.
The fine margin between winning and losing was demonstrated a few times over the weekend. It took a period of overtime to separate the Warriors and the Rugbears from Munich in the first group match with the Germans winning by 42-41.
The next group match was against the eventual winners, ETAC Seagulls from Sweden. The rigours of the Munich match took its toll on the Warriors energy levels and the Swedes won by 44-30.
The Warriors had a great win against the Dutch Crashing Dream Team (45-27) to set up a clash with their old adversaries, the Newcastle Bulls, in the crossovers.
This time the Warriors exacted revenge for the narrow loss of the previous weekend winning by five goals (35-30) to set up a clash with a Dutch team, Scorpions 1.
Sunday afternoon saw the Irish and the Dutch contest a close encounter, no quarter asked, none given and the Warriors were on the right end of the 43-41 scoreline at the final buzzer to claim fifth spot and finish the weekend on a successful note.
A sign of how competitive the Warriors were during Bernd Best 2006 is that the finalists came from the Warriors’ group with the Seagulls getting the better of Munich by a single goal. Austria took the bronze medal.
Next on the list for the Gaelic Warriors is the Welsh leg of the British League, which will be held in Cardiff over next weekend and they will finish the league with a visit to Wolverhampton on the first weekend in May.
If you need to know anything else about the sport of Wheelchair Rugby check out the Warriors website at www.gaelicwarriors.com
