Aflac NI retains Corporate Tag Trophy in 2025!

The sun was shining — probably one of the last proper summery days of the year — and the vibes were great from the start. Our squad of 11 made their way to a local rugby ground to participate in Corporate Tag tournament.

We had a brilliant mix of returning players and a few new faces joining the team on the day. For many of us (myself included), it had been a while since we last ran — the summer league wrapped up in July, and half the team had been off tackling the Peaks Challenge — so there was a bit of nervous energy about whether we still had it in us!

There was also a little extra pressure... we weren’t just playing for fun — we were the defending 2024 Corporate Tag champions!

On top of that, this time, I was stepping up as solo captain, having missed last year’s tournament due to work commitments, so I was feeling the nerves (and those big expectations!) just a bit more.

We arrived early to make sure everyone got a good warm-up in and gave our new players a quick run-through — how to defend on the wing, how to pull tags cleanly, and a few quick game tips before the action began.

Before long it was time for the first group match KO to begin! Across the matches we scored 26 tries, totalling 42 points! Every game was a clear win:

We’re a competitive bunch at Aflac NI and like the summer league we kept our own scoreboard of the try tally’s throughout tournament!

Corporate Tag try leaderboard

• Richard Maybin (played before but was his debut for the team)– 8

• Richard Murphy – 6

• Tina – 4

• Catherine – 3

• Clifton & James – 2 each

• Niamh (on her debut!) - 1

A huge shout-out to our debut players Niamh, Barbara, and Richard Maybin, and to our returning legends Roosevelt, Richard Murphy, Catherine, Christine, Clifton, Alagappan, and James, our former placement student who has returned to uni for his final year but will be back to join #ourbrood in 2026!
And of course, a special mention to Keith, who couldn’t make it on the day but was still our number one cheerleader from afar!

Written by; Tina Ho, Scrum Master