Clondalkin Ladies (72) vs Tullow Ladies (3)

Article by Ciaran Cullen


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- Clondalkin ladies rugby team was set up through the industrious work of Sandra Flood and Catherine Keane who asked the club if they could get some support in setting up the team during the summer. They canvassed throughout the club and surrounding area looking for players throughout the summer and resulted in getting together 20 girls together for Saturday's game. The team then began 2 months training under the management team of Kieran Phelan and Eugene Noble along with guest coaches Ciaran Cullen, Marty O'Brien, Marky Molloy, Brian Berry and Steve Cunningham.

- Then the game itself, Clondalkin being led by Captain Catherine Keane, cousin of Roy, for the first time in a competitive game, began by kicking off into Tullow. Sandra Flood set the tone for the rest of the forwards by chasing the kick off and putting in a massive hit resulting in a turnover after a knock on from Tullow. From the resulting scrum it was then the backs turn to demonstrate the slick hands which they had shown all week in training. They duly obliged with scrum half louise 'rusty' kavanagh scoring the historic first Clondalkin Ladies try in the corner after some great link play by out half tonya allen, centres Catherine Keane and Mairead Crowley and wing Shona Byrne.

- Tullow restarted and showed that they where equally up for the game by pinning Clondalkin into the their 22. After an initial mix up by Clondalkin from the kick off Tullow where awarded a scrum which they passed out to their out half for her to get there first points on the board after 'drop kicking' the ball through the posts leaving the score 5 points to 3 with 5 minutes gone.

- Clondalkin then showed that they where not prepared on this historic occasion to let the limelight be stolen by their guests. From the restart the pack upped the ante on their opponents with some great defensive hits being put in initially by Rachel Vickers and followed up by Linda Scully resulting in another turnover which allowed the backs to show their class once again through firstly Catherine Keane who barrelled up the middle to set up perfect ball as she did throughout the day, out half Tonya Allen then distributed the ball out along the line for wing Shona Byrne to finish off after an excellent off load by centre Mairead Crowley.

- Clondalkin regrouped straight away having learned how important it is to secure there restarts from their earlier mishap and set up the ball perfectly this time from a great take by Captain Catherine Keane who was ably supported by her colleagues Anna Boyle and Laura Murphy who rucked superbly throughout the game. The forwards continued to rumble the play up the field after Keanes initial break with all action hero Andrea Jebb leading the charge with a 30 metre burst to the line before adding the resulting conversion herself.

- At this stage Clondalkin where 19-3 up and could easily have allowed there concentration to slip and allow Tullow back into the game. However with experienced campaigners like Keane, leinster representative Rachel Vickers and vice captain Sandra Flood in the side this was not going happen and Clondalkin showed there ruthless side by continuing to exert the pressure in the forwards and show there class in the backs through 3 more team tries from star performer Louise 'rusty' Kavanagh.

- Just on the half time whistle one of the tries of the day was scored by second row Sandra Flood. From a Tullow restart Clondalkin set the ball up on half way after a superb restart take from Vickers. Jen Mooney along with Anna Boyle then cleared out what must have been her 20th ruck of the half, setting up the ball superbly for Out Half Tonya Allen who showed her class by side stepping 3 Tullow Ladies before off loading to the supporting Laura Murphy who set up the play again just outside the 22. The ball was then worked out the line to centre Keane who found herself with 3 defenders in front of her and Flood out side, after drawing in 2 of the Tullow defenders she off loaded superbly to Flood who then palmed off the last defender leaving her the opportunity to stroll in for her first and impressively Clondalkins 7th try of the half.

- At half time manager Kieran Phelan decided to mix things up and to introduce some new faces to the game. Shona Byrne switched from wing to scrum half, Emma McKeever, Maryann Ryan and Siobhan Stanley where all introduced into a much changed but equally effective back line. Having played some expansive and sevens like rugby in the first half it was decided to use the cultured gaa boots of both out half Allen and centre Keane to more effect in the second period.

- The second half began much the same way as the first with some impressive tackles by Vickers, Linda Scully and Andrea Jebb backed then by the continued impressive rucking from Anna Boyle, Flood, Laura Murphy and Jen Mooney which in turn gave the new back line plenty of possession to impress. The new back line did not waste time in getting there names on the score board with wing Emma McKeever jinking her way around 3 defenders to score in the corner after an impressive off load from Anna Boyle and great link play from Siobhan Stanley. Fellow half time substitution Maryann Ryan was not going to be stood up by her colleagues and showed lovely hands to execute a perfectly timed switch with out half Tonya Allen who dotted down between the posts leaving herself with the easy task of slotting over her 4th conversion of the day.

- At this stage Tullow regrouped and showed great character to encamp themselves in the Clondalkin half for the next 10 mins giving Clondalkins impressive defence the chance to step and shine. After some sustained Tullow pressure which was counteracted by some exceptional tackling from forward Linda Scully in particular, Rachel Vickers and Laura Murphy took the opportunity to power through a ruck to give Clondalkin back possession and Andrea Jebb then relieved the pressure with a huge punt into touch. Clondalkin then continued to dominate at the line outs through Vickers who was ably supported by some accurate throwing from Anna Boyle.

- It was from one of these impressive lineouts the forward unit scored a try taken straight from the training ground, Anna Boyle and second row Vickers combined well again from touch and from the resulting maul the ever impressive second row Laura Murphy took the opportunity to power over for her first try. Then as the game reached its conclusion it was time for Vickers to claim the try her impressive performance deserved. After some superb ball carrying from young front row Jen Mooney Clondalkin found themselves with a scrum in Tullows 22. A snappy pass from the back of the scrum by Shona Byrne gave out half Allen the time and space to put Keane in, Keane showed her strength to free the ball from the tackle and off load to the supporting Vickers who finished the scoring for the day.

- Managers Kieran Phelan and Eugene Noble along with their coaches where pleased with everyone's performance from 1 to 20 and of particular note was the effort shown from Micheala Byrne who filled in for Tullow and showed some great effort in defence in her first ever rugby match. All think her efforts showed that she could have a good season ahead of her.

Added by Murts September 22, 2009 (11:13AM)

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