Women storm to win over league leaders

ever the effort for three points was wide. Balbriggan responded with a great clearance kick and applied pressure on the Wicklow defence.

The Dublinners won a penalty and converted for three points. In what was a very physical match Balbriggan’s pack managed to make hard yards time after time. Back down in Balbriggan’s half a clever cross field kick by Wicklow and good hands back across the line saw Andrea Petru cross the line for a great team try.

Ten minutes later great Wicklow rucking and quick hands led to Megan McConnell going over for an unconverted try. The score at half-time was 17-3.

The second half saw a rejuvenated Balbriggan playing to their strengths. Wicklow were under sustained pressure from both the driving Balbriggan forwards and the boot of their number ten. Wicklow started strong and Hannah-Rose Buckley was just held up over the line. Balbriggan lost possession at scrum time and in an initial ’two on one’ situation Kayleigh Sullivan was the try-scorer, the conversion was missed but Wicklow led 22 – 3.

Minutes later after a powerful Balbriggan attack, Wicklow found themselves with a scrum on their own five metre line. A loose pass was tidied up over the Wicklow try line by Ciara Patrick and the pass to Meagan Parkinson sent her on her way for a length of the pitch try. The try was converted to make it 29 – 3 and Wicklow looked out of sight.

Balbriggan fought back however with two converted tries in quick succession, their pack got their due rewards and forced Wicklow to defend heroically for the remaining five minutes.

The final whistle blew in Wicklow’s twenty-two and left the score at 29-17. This was a great squad effort by Wicklow and although not all went as planned Wicklow got the five points and now top the table. They travel to Clontarf next Sunday for the next fixture of their league campaign.

Tries: Meagan Parkinson (2), Andrea Petru (1), Kayleigh Sullivan (1), Megan McConnell (1)

Cons: Leanne Sullivan (2) ARKLOW continued their Leinster League campaign on Sunday hosting unbeaten Athy at The Oval in windy but dry conditions.

Athy began the game the better of the two sides as the home team seemed to let the pressure get to them a bit and were playing as individuals and were lacking direction.

The visitors took advantage of this with an early penalty to lead 0-3. Athy kept the pressure on and although Arklow were starting to find their shape and were beginning to threaten, it was the visitors who scored next with a converted try to make it 0-10 after 25 minutes.

Arklow had a better spell now and started to settle into their patterns and were unlucky not to convert some good attacking plays into points after the ball had been moved wide on a couple of occasions. Athy could not find a way through the now steady Arklow defence but managed to convert a penalty just before halftime to take a comfortable 0-13 lead into the break.

After some stern words from head coach Eric Miller, Arklow came out a different team for the second half.

The forwards lifted their game and started to put the Athy scrum and line-out under real pressure and the centre pairing of Kieran McCarthy and Richard Murphy were running hard lines at the opposition which soon paid off when Murphy stretched between two tacklers to score beside the posts. Dean McCormack converted to bring the score to 7-13.

Arklow now had their tails up and took the game to Athy by attacking with more and more aggression, personified by man of the match Charlie Louth who time and time again, took ball on like a cannon-ball, smashing through the gain line. The hard work and patient play paid off when captain Aidan Louth drove over from the back of a ruck to score to bring it to 12-13 with 15 to go.

Athy were not done yet though and worked well to get back up the pitch and when Arklow conceded a penalty, took advantage to slot the kick to take a four point lead 12-16 with five minutes remaining.

The home side were not going to let this game go easily though and from the restart kept Athy in their 22 and now set up camp here to try and get over the white-wash one more time.

There was no respite for the visitors and it was only a matter of time before Arklow were going to score.

Deep into injury time and after Arklow had been held up several times on the line, it was the ever-green Gavin Byrne who spotted the gap and dived over for the winning try to huge cheers from the home support. McCormack converted to bring the final score to 19-16 to Arklow.

This was a huge squad performance and the strength of the bench told as every substitution had an impact and only served to boost the team on the pitch.

This result leaves the league wide open with only three points between first and fifth place. Arklow travel to Athboy next week and there is space available on the bus for any supporters who wish to travel.