Dundalk under-18 girls see off challenge
DUNDALK under 18 girls travelled to Birr on Saturday for their second outing of the season having dispatched Enniscorthy in style last weekend at Mill Road.
The game started with Birr using their physically bigger forward pack to punch up the side of rucks in twos and threes, which had Dundalk on the back foot from the start. It paid off for Birr who opened the scoring beside the posts.
Dundalk took some time to get going against the physically stronger Offaly girls but with gritty tackling and counter rucking the Louth girls got back into the game by spreading the ball wide away from contact with full back Maria Smith crossing under the posts, converted by Aoife Laurence. This try was followed up by Caoimhe O’Callaghan crossing under the posts again, converted by Aoife Laurence.
A spilled ball by Birr from Dun- dalk pressure defence led to the ball going wide again for Aoife Laurence to cross the whitewash and convert herself.
Birr were by no means out of it and came back strongly and crossed the Dundalk line only to be held up by stoic defence across the team. Dundalk were camped on their own line for seven or eight minutes and held out strongly to the half time whistle.
The second half resumed with Dundalk reduced to 14 girls Aoife Laurence unable to continue. Birr restarted the second half like they did the first. Strong running by their forwards led to another score despite dogged Dundalk tackling.
Birr pressure was building and Dundalk started to look a bit ragged but they held out and went back to getting the ball wide resulting in Caoimhe O’Callaghan crossing twice in a matter of minutes, the second converted by Eva