Grainne makes Short work of Athy visitors
Division 4 Women
from Athy, Rathdrum attacked the Athy defensive line with intensity, gaining yard after yard.
Athy RFC were not to be thwarted and pushed Rathdrum back down the field.
With both teams so evenly matched, it took 20 minutes for the first score to come.
Athy had strong runners and were constantly pushing the line against Rathdrum but the defence stood strong.
Strong tackles by Ellen Hurley, Bernie Byrne and Danielle Burke kept Athy at bay for the opening 20 minutes.
Rathdrum held their ground and their compsure and after perhaps 15 phases of rucking the ball up the field, it was a strong line from outhalf Pamela Maher who saw a gap in the line and popped the ball back to Tanya Carter who went over for the first try of the game. Rathdrum 5- 0 Athy.
From the kick off in the second half, Athy were not to be deterred and with strong runs from their forwards and a lapse in the Rathdrum defence saw an Athy player find a gap and ran from the half way line to score under the posts. This try was converted. Rathdrum 5- 7 Athy.
Rathdrum knew they could not drop the heads and with another try in the mind of all team players. Rathdrum were awarded three scrums in a row where eventually Ann-marie Burke picked from the back of the scrum to dive over the line for Rathdrum’s second try. Rathdrum 10-7 Athy
Athy at this point were down to 12 players and were unable to get past the half way line for the remaining 8 minutes of the game. When the whistle blew, a tired but happy Rathdrum side had won.
Player of the day went to captain Grainne Short for her tackling, defensive operations and direction within the game to her pack.
Next Sunday, the Division 4 side are away to leaders Portlaoise.
Squad: Lynda Woolmington, Ciara Healy, Aoife Byrne, Siobhan Parsons, Pamela Maher, Tanya Carter, Nicola Souster, Danielle Burke, Bernie Byrne, Ellen Hurley, Annmarie Burke, Neasa Olohan, Roisin Olohan, Laura, Steph Rattery, Lorna Driver. ARKLOW’S poor run of performances continued as they went down with to a powerful Athy side with league ambitions.
It was not any lack of courage or commitment or grit that Arklow lacked, but perhaps Arklow are now too predictable and can easily be countered by an equally strong opposition back line, Arklow.
Arklow were first across the try line after a superb kick into the corner of the Athy 22.
Good chasing by Eoin O Scannail reclaimed the ball and good support play got Arklow over the try line. The conversion was difficult and missed.
Arklow now came under the cosh as Athy squeezed and kept Arklow pinned inside their own half.
Under pressure, Arklow conceded an easy straight kick from in front of their posts which Athy promptly converted to open their scoring.
When Arklow were applying pressure on Athy, s try line they were unable to score which probably shows the difference between both teams.
The rest of the first half saw Arklow defending and conceding a try and conversion plus another penalty bringing the score to 13 points to 5 in Athy’s favour at half time.
Arklow were still under pressure from the beginning of the second half and were busy keeping protecting their territory but eventually had to give away another penalty which left the score reading Athy 16 points to Arklow’s five points.