Heather’s high five for rampant Rathdrum
ON a sunny morning, Rathdrum Ladies Rugby played host on Sunday to a young Mullingar side.
Rathdrum were coming off the back of a hard All-Ireland Cup clash with the powerhouse that is the Old Belvedere Ladies AIL side.
With former Irish Internationals of Sophie Spence, Jenny Murphy and Nora Stapleton gracing the Wicklow pitch it was a hard day in the office for the Rathdrum side.
Rathdrum Ladies were confident from the start that they were out to win this Mullingar game and get the bonus point to keep them in second place in the league table.
Mullingar, having suffered the loss of numerous players have had a disappointing season and are currently sitting bottom of the table, and who only could travel with the bare contingent of 13 players.
The game opened as Mullingar kicked into Rathdrum, and with the wind at their backs Rathdrum took off at pace.
Fiery No 13, Heather Cullen definitely had her Weetabix that morning when she ran through the defence to score the first of her five tries in the first two minutes of the game to open the scoring.
Although the opening minutes were perhaps somewhat frantic from the Rathdrum women, they still marched towards the Mullingar line.
In the first 20 minutes, the backs of Heather, Trish and Laura were two quick for the Mullingar defence who were put under intense pressure in the opening 20 minutes, Heather ran in two more tries with the super slick side step she has perfected.
With the bonus point looking good, Rathdrum needed to work on the their set plays and rucking.
Great defending work from Becky, Stephanie Windsor and Sammy McCoy kept Mullingar’s No 10 at bay who seems to play every position on the pitch.
Nonetheless Rathdrum attacked Mullingar with controlled aggression and were soon on the way to the Mullingar 22 once again.
The next score of the day came from Player of the Day Noelle Ward who threatened the Mullingar line continuously.
She was eventually awarded with a try when she skipped through the three Mullingar defenders to touch down right of the posts.
Moments later, quick hands from Rathdrum saw full-back Cailtin Olohan, who was in fine form and having perfected the ‘hand off’, was set free up the right wing.
She made no mistake and touched down for her first of the day.
With 30 minutes gone, it is a credit to Mullingar that they attacked with full force and remained intent on breaching the Rathdrum line.
Due to a lack of concentration, Rathdrum found themselves giving away several penalties and were defending their line against Mullingar.
Mullingar were under pressure now and desperate to score but several dropped balls saw outhalf Mo Dowling kick the Rathdrum side back down the field where Heather skipped through under the posts to score her fourth try of the half. The first half closed 41-0.
Rathdrum took on a stiffer challenge in the second half with a strong wind in their face.
However, they worked with the same aggression of the first half against an ever determined Mullingar.
Despite dominating the set plays the Rathdrum scores were slower to come.
The next score of the day came from Trish Byrne who, after some quick hands from the Rathdrum backs, darted and dived through the Mullingar defence to see herself clear for the try line.
Becky saw her huge kick just dip over the posts for her first ever conversion for the team.
With Mullingar still scoreless, the energiser bunny Heather took a cheeky ball from the scrum half and was high tackled as she crossed for her fifth and final try of the day.
With a renewed panel of subs let loose on the pitch, it was Tanya‘s turn to put her name on the scoreboard, from a quick ball of the ruck she saw a gap in the Mullingar defence which saw her outrun three defenders to score under the posts for her first senior try.
It was another last burst effort from Rathdrum when Aoife Byrne got through the line but was tackled before the line, it set up a ruck from which her sister Trish Byrne finished the try on her behalf and got her first hat trick of tries. Final score 65-0.
We wish Laura Kavanagh a speedy recovery from an injury in the last play of the game.
Next week, Division 1 Ladies travel to Old Belvederes J2’s and the Development side are home to Portlaoise.
Squad: Linda Dempsey, Becky Condron, Lindsay Madge, Nikki Fennell, Noelle Ward, Kellie Fennell, Stephanie Ward-Windsor, Tanya Carter, Aoife Byrne, Lisa Cahill, Mo Dowling, Heather Cullen, Sammy McCoy, Caitlin Olohan, Nicola Souster, Trish Byrne, Laura Kavanagh, Grainne Short, Clarisse Broughan, Ellen Hurley.