From struggling to understand tag rugby to reaching the Schools' Cup final, Assumption GS hope to make the most of their underdogs tag against Enniskillen Royal GS

Assumption will face Enniskillen Royal in the girls’ School’s Cup decider and it is just an achievement to get to the final, which gets under way at 12pm.

O’Neill explained how participating at a tag rugby tournament was the catalyst for the sport to fully take-off at the school.

“We went to a tag rugby tournament last year and nearly missed the deadline to enter into that, a few days before I was running around school asking can we do it and going to as many teachers possible to see how can we make it work,” she said.

“We went and we tried our best at it and that's all we could do, the first time a lot of the girls had touched a ball was in the middle of a match, but it was good craic.

“Some didn't get the concept of tag, that the person has to have the ball to be tagged, one of my friends was running around tagging everyone.

“People knew I played and asked how I did it, and I told them come to this tag tournament for the craic, if nothing else.

“They came along and they loved it, even putting together a sevens team has been incredible as people have taken to it so well and have been willing to give it a go and learn on the job.”

Reaching a Kingspan Stadium final was beyond the expectations of O’Neill and her team mates.

However, she acknowledged that they are now all “excited” by the prospect of landing the top prize at the home of Ulster Rugby.

“I play for Cooke RFC, I'm the only one who plays for a club in my school but we've got a few girls now hoping to go to a club,” she added.

“One of them had a deal that if they reached the final, her mum was allowing her to go and join Ballynahinch, so now we've a few who are going to clubs.

“Oh my God, that's the dream, isn't it? I've always loved going and watching Ulster play.

“Even the Wolfhounds recently, I get to train in the gym there on a Thursday night with the NTS, so I've been around there but never got to play there so to do that is really exciting.

“It's been really enjoyable as we had no idea what it was going to be like with everyone being so new to it.

“We thought we'd give it a rattle, we have really good football and camogie teams, so we've pulled girls from that and the skills are all transferrable, so everyone can give it a go.

“Everyone's been really supportive and the girls have put their bodies on the line, so everybody's enjoying it and excited about it.”

O’Neill believes they are underdogs this afternoon but has full faith in their abilities to get the job done.

She continued: “Even our first tournament we went to, I thought it was a fluke when we beat Royal School Armagh and I was like 'surely this is just beginners' luck?”

“I thought we could get into the final and then the semi-finals came and we were 10-0 down with three minutes to go and I thought ‘fair play us for even getting here’, and then we won, you can only dream of it.

“We are massive underdogs, there's no denying it but there's massive excitement in being underdogs because nobody expects you to do it and if you can play on the day, then it's exciting.

“It's what you dream of to win it and I think we can do well, we've got good runners, a clever kicking game, and we don't know ourselves what we're going to do but neither do they, so we'll see how it goes.”