Trinity Capture Inaugural Women's Intervarsity Trophy : Irish Rugby

The Dublin University Women duly paid homage to former club President Kay Bowen by capturing the first ever Women's Intervarsity cup, named in her honour, with a 10-0 victory over UCC at College Park last weekend.

In front of a large crowd, Trinity saw off a spirited UCC side to win the inaugural Kay Bowen Trophy at College Park last Saturday in a highly entertaining and competitive game.

The Kay Bowen Trophy is named in honour of Kay Bowen, a past President of Dublin University Football Club.

The game started at a furious pace with Trinity applying most of the early pressure with Louise Sullivan, in particular, making several strong line-breaking carries.

However, the UCC defence - led from the front by number 8 Hannah Lane and marshalled by scrum half and captain Mona Feehily - stood firm.

The deadlock was eventually broken after 21 minutes. Trinity centre Amanda Shauvlin cut through the UCC midfield cover and laid off to right winger Aoife Ruane who made 20 metres to set up a ruck close to the UCC whitewash.

From the resulting breakdown, number 6 and captain Tara Deane picked and drove at the UCC defence and laid off for prop Louise Sullivan to crash over for the opening score.

The match-winning score came in the 48th minute when great midfield interplay between Trinity full-back Annika Dennehy and Shauvlin released Ruane who outpaced the UCC cover to touch down in the corner.

UCC rallied and began a period of sustained pressure in the Trinity 22, with UCC's Kelly McGuiness, in particular, making several great breaks. The Trinity defence could not be breached however and Trinity closed the game out on a 10-0 scoreline

Kay Bowen presented the trophy pitchside to the winning captain Tara Deane and thanked both sides for the quality of the game played, noting that the final had been a wonderful advert for Women's intervarsity rugby and had set a very high bar for the finals to come.

The Irish Universities Rugby Union is the representative organisation of University rugby union clubs in Ireland. Member clubs include UCD, DUFC, UCC and QUB and NUIG

The Irish Universities Rugby Union organises the following competitions annually in the following grades:

Senior, The Dudley Cup
Under-21, The Conroy Cup
Ladies, The Kay Bowen Trophy
Junior 2-3, The Maughan-Scally Cup

The Irish Universities Rugby Union can be contacted at irishunisrugby@gmail.com.

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IRFU Chief Executive Philip Browne spoke to Irish Rugby TV about the Union's 2016/17 Annual Report, which includes increased investment in Women's rugby and addresses the challenges of funding for the game in Ireland.