Snowy Success For Ireland Women
The Ireland Women’s squad took on their Scottish counterparts in a friendly match in Belfast last week, with new coach Kevin West running the rule over the players ahead of the Women’s RBS 6 Nations opener against Italy at Ashbourne RFC on Friday, February 5.
Despite the overnight snow and icy conditions, the Irish and Scottish Women’s squads completed their weekend training camps with a friendly match played on a very snowy pitch at Belfast Harlequins last week.
Both squads had spent the weekend preparing for Sunday’s game, with the Irish side training at the University of Ulster Jordanstown’s 3-G facilities and the Scottish women using the facilities at Cooke RFC.
This was the final opportunity for the coaches, including Ireland’s new boss Kevin West, to assess players ahead of the start of the RBS Women’s 6 Nations Championship in early February.
The game was divided into two 30-minute periods, followed by a 20-minute session, which gave both management teams ample opportunity to give all of their players a run-out.
Despite the very cold conditions, both sides played open and entertaining rugby, taking every opportunity to move the ball wide and put into practice the various moves that had been worked on during their training period.
At the end of the 80 minutes, Ireland had outscored their opponents by six tries to none and were worthy of their victory by the final whistle.
The friendly encounter saw Cooke and Ulster’s Eliza Downey have her first involvement at this level, lining out at full-back, while Blackrock and Leinster winger Amy Davis scored two of the six tries.
The Ulster Branch would like to thank Belfast Harlequins for hosting the game and making every effort to ensure that the match went ahead despite the snowy conditions.