Honours Even As Ireland U18 Women Draw With Wales On Final Day Of Festival
Ireland finished the Six Nations U18 Women’s Festival with a 24-24 draw against Wales in an exciting match that saw the lead change hands several times.
Wales scored first through powerful front rower Crystal James before Ireland hit back with Olivia McKinley collecting her own blockdown to score under the posts. Siofra Hession added the conversion for Ireland to lead 7-5.
Wales looked a very different team to the one that struggled on Days 1 and 2 and they applied consistent pressure through their strong ball carrying pack. James powered over for her second try to take the lead.
Ireland came out firing in the second half and showed more composure as they went through the phases and earned a series of tap penalties for Lucia Dickinson to dive over for a try on 42 minutes.
Wales hit back again and this time it was Lily Hawkins who powered over to give Wales a 19-14 lead. It was end to end as Ireland struck back, this time through Diana Izekor who drove over the line, again after a series of well worked tapped penalties. That levelled things at 19-19.
On 61 minutes Wales hit back, a powerful drive from James created the room for her team mate Charlie Williams to score and give them a five point lead.
Ireland were not done yet and yet another set of tap penalties paid off as the ball was moved to Rebecca Cahill who stepped out of one tackle to and hold off another to level the match. It finished 24-24.
Ireland came in to the match with three wins from the four 35 minute matches beating Italy (29-7) and England (0-21) on Day 1 and Scotland (7-22) on Day 2 before losing to France (0-14).
They notched up twelve tries over the first two days and limited France to just two tries. Take a look all the scores from all three days of matches.
Ireland U18 Women – Six Nations Festival Tries
Ireland U18 Women v Wales U18 (Saturday 18 April, Wellington College, 12.00pm Irish Time)
15. Aoife Heaney (Claremorris/Connacht)
14. Rebecca Cahill (Portlaoise/Leinster)
13. Caitlin Crowe (Cavan/Ulster)
12. Lily Byrne (Dolphin/Munster)
11. Erin McConalogue (Inishowen/Ulster)
10. Siofra Hession (Creggs/Connacht)
9. Aoibhe Kelly (Tullamore/Leinster)
1. Orlaith Morrissy (Ballincollig/Munster)
2. Bronagh Boggan (Wexford Wanderers/Leinster)
3. Cara McLean (Larne/Ulster) Captain
4. Usha Daly O’Toole (Gorey/Leinster)
5. Olivia McKinley (Banbridge/Ulster)
6. Merisa Kiripati (Creggs/Connacht)
7. Lucia Dickinson (Cardinal Newman College/IQ Rugby)
8. Roisin Power (Ballinasloe/Connacht)
Replacements
16. Uillian Eilian (Tuam/Oughterard/Connacht)
17. Emma Jane Wilson (Port Dara/Leinster)
18. Kate Noons (PortDara/Leinster)
19. Diana Izekor (Longford/Leinster)
20. Roisin Ridge (Seapoint/Leinster)
21. Sally Kelly (Ennis/Munster)
22. Amy McConkey (Cooke/Ulster)
23. Lani O’Donovan (Clonakilty/Munster)
24. Heidi Lyons (Naas/Leinster)
25. Leah Nealon (De La Salle Palmerston/Leinster
Injured:
Teni Onigbode
Ella Buckley
Ciara O’Donnell