Vodafone Women’s Interpros: Round 1 – Munster v Connacht Preview

VODAFONE WOMEN’S INTERPROVINCIAL CHAMPIONSHIP – ROUND 1:

Sunday, August 10 –

MUNSTER v CONNACHT, Virgin Media Park, 4.15pm (live on Spórt TG4 YouTube Channel)

Buy Your Ticket(s) Here

Match Programme – Vodafone Women’s Interprovincial Championship Round 1

Recent Interprovincial Form: Munster: LWWWL; Connacht: LLDLW

Last Five Meetings: 2019: Semi-Final: Munster 17 Connacht 20, Templeville Road; 2021: Munster 31 Connacht 7, Musgrave Park; 2023: Connacht 24 Munster 50, the Sportsground; Munster 46 Connacht 7, Musgrave Park; 2024: Connacht 24 Munster 29, Dexcom Stadium

Players To Watch Out For: Munster: Lyndsay Clarke – Pacy back Clarke typifies the level of talent coming through the ambitious Ennis/Kilrush programme run by Gareth O’Hanlon. She helped the County Clare club gain a historic promotion to the Energia All-Ireland League, before starting at ouside centre and full-back for the Ireland Under-20s most recently.

Connacht: Síofra Hession – The fact that Emer O’Dowd is starting Hession in such a key position on her Connacht senior debut shows how highly she is rated. The Creggs starlet had two years with the Ireland Under-18s and only turned 18 in June. She was an PwC U-18 Interprovincial title winner in early 2024 alongside her half-back partner on Sunday, Gráinne Moran.

Pre-Match Views – Maeve Óg O’Leary (Munster): “I feel delighted and very privileged to lead such an incredible team, alongside Chloe (Pearse) and Steph (Nunan). I’m just so happy to be back (from injury), and so happy to be back in a Munster jersey.

“Just a few weeks ago we sat down with some former players, and hearing their stories and how far that they’ve come, and how far they’ve brought this jersey and this team, so it’s an absolute privilege and an honour, and the goal as a squad is just to leave the jersey in a better place.

“We’re really focusing on ourselves. The Interpros is a short enough window, we’ve been training as a squad since June 10. I can’t wait to get on the field and show what we’ve been working on. The key thing for us will be to get performances and string them together.”

Éabha Nic Dhonnacha (Connacht): “I felt honoured to be picked as captain, and happy that they thought that I could do the job. Proud to be able to do the job. We’re buzzing (to start the Interprovincial campaign), I think there’s a really good buzz in the group.

“We can really put it up to Munster and the other teams this year. We have amazing depth from the younger ones coming up to the people that were here. The success at age-grade has come from the unbelievable coaching we got from a fairly young age. Coaching and analysis from 16 onwards.

“These girls know how to win, they love to win, and they bring a competitiveness and a buzz to training that we might not have had. I think bringing that up to senior (level), we just need to up the physicality, up the leadership, and keep driving forward.”

Team News: Matt Brown’s first Munster team announcement of the season shows eight changes to the side that lost last year’s Championship final to Leinster. He returns to the head coach role he last held in 2021 when he led the Reds to Interprovincial glory.

Front rowers Gráinne Burke and Saoirse Crowe, and Ennis flyer Lyndsay Clarke, who will line out on the right wing, are the three debutants in Munster’s new-look starting XV.

There are four more potential new caps in Clarke’s club-mate Orna Moynihan, and the Ballincollig trio of Aoife Fleming, Lily Morris, and Eve Prendergast, as Brown urges his charges to ‘go as hard as we can and try to put things on the pitch that we’ve worked on in training’.

Tighthead Eilís Cahill, the reigning Energia All-Ireland League Women’s Division Player of the Year, completes the front row, with Aoibhe O’Flynn, who makes her first start in red, and Claire Bennett also picked in the tight five.

A powerful back row unit is made up of new captain Maeve Óg O’Leary, who is set for her first taste of Interprovincial action in two years, Brianna Heylmann, and number 8 Chloe Pearse, the most-capped member of the Munster squad with 33 appearances.

Tipperary native O’Leary, who underwent two knee surgeries last year, has not played for Munster since the historic clash with the Barbarians at Thomond Park in September 2023.

Caitríona Finn and Abbie Salter-Townshend will make their first senior starts for Munster, with Finn, who turned 19 in June, coming into the Interprovincial Championship on the back of three appearances in Six Nations Women’s Summer Series.

UL Bohemian regulars Alana McInerney and Stephanie Nunan make up the centre pairing, and there is a strong Ennis connection in the back-three where newcomer Clarke is joined by Chisom Ugwueru and full-back Aoife Corey, who made her Ireland debut against Scotland in April.

Fellow Ireland cap Jane Clohessy is set for some game-time off the bench. Alongside the new caps, Ciara McLoughlin, Annakate Cournane, and Kate Flannery bring experience of previous Interpros, with the 21-year-old Flannery having already played twelve times for her province.

Meanwhile, at the start of her second season as Connacht head coach, Emer O’Dowd is backing the province’s young guns to make hay while some of the other provinces’ big hitters are away on Ireland duty during the Rugby World Cup period.

Síofra Hession, Connacht’s Under-18 Player of the Year for 2024/25, is handed her senior debut at out-half. She reunites her half-back partnership from U-18 level with Gráinne Moran, who was ever-present in the number 9 jersey last year.

Newly-appointed captain Éabha Nic Dhonnacha, a two-time Energia All-Ireland League title winner with UL Bohs, leads this youthful Connacht team from inside centre, with Jemima Adams Verling and Poppy Garvey backing her up as vice-captains.

The experienced Orla Dixon joins forces with Nic Dhonnacha in the centre, Emily Foley, another of the talented Ballina underage group, returns from Ireland U-20 duty on the right wing, and Clara Barrett, stationed at full-back, and Ava Ryder feature again in the back-three.

Ireland cap Megan Collis will bring her scrummaging power in a tight five that also includes Ella Burns, Lily Brady, Garvey, and Grace Browne Moran. Alongside number 8 Adams Verling, recent Tuam/Oughterard captain Beibhinn Gleeson and Sligo native Lesley Ring fill the flanker berths.

Four different clubs are represented on the westerners’ bench, including four players from Galwegians. One of those Blue Belles is Ailish Quinn, who has been released from Ireland camp to make her senior bow for her home province.

Creggs’ Hannah Coen is part of the reserve front row, while Caoilfhionn Conway Morrissey is set to line out against a couple of her Ennis team-mates.

Karly Tierney, the new joint-captain of Tuam/Oughterard, will also have an impact role for the visitors, who finished third in last season’s Interpros. Their two replacement backs are Sinead O’Brien and Fódhla Ní Bhraonáin.

MUNSTER: Aoife Corey (UL Bohemian RFC); Lyndsay Clarke (Ennis RFC), Alana McInerney (UL Bohemian RFC), Stephanie Nunan (UL Bohemian RFC), Chisom Ugwueru (UL Bohemian RFC); Caitríona Finn (UL Bohemian RFC), Abbie Salter-Townshend (UL Bohemian RFC); Gráinne Burke (UL Bohemian RFC), Saoirse Crowe (Shannon RFC), Eilís Cahill (UL Bohemian RFC), Aoibhe O’Flynn (UL Bohemian RFC), Claire Bennett (UL Bohemian RFC), Brianna Heylmann (UL Bohemian RFC), Maeve Óg O’Leary (Blackrock College RFC) (capt), Chloe Pearse (UL Bohemian RFC).

Replacements: Aoife Fleming (Ballincollig RFC), Ciara McLoughlin (UL Bohemian RFC), Lily Morris (Ballincollig RFC), Jane Clohessy (UL Bohemian RFC), Annakate Cournane (Shannon RFC), Eve Prendergast (Ballincollig RFC), Kate Flannery (UL Bohemian RFC), Orna Moynihan (Ennis RFC).

CONNACHT: Clara Barrett (UL Bohemian RFC); Emily Foley (Galwegians RFC), Orla Dixon (Galwegians RFC), Éabha Nic Dhonnacha (UL Bohemian RFC) (capt), Ava Ryder (Blackrock College RFC); Siofra Hession (Creggs RFC), Gráinne Moran (Galwegians RFC); Ella Burns (Tuam/Oughterard RFC/Galwegians RFC), Lily Brady (Westport RFC/UL Bohemian RFC), Megan Collis (Railway Union RFC), Poppy Garvey (Railway Union RFC), Grace Browne Moran (Galwegians RFC), Beibhinn Gleeson (Tuam/Oughterard RFC), Lesley Ring (Old Belvedere RFC), Jemima Adams Verling (Creggs RFC).

Replacements: Stacy Hanley (Galwegians RFC), Hannah Coen (Creggs RFC), Roisin Maher (Galwegians RFC), Ailish Quinn (Galwegians RFC), Caoilfhionn Conway Morrissey (Ennis RFC), Karly Tierney (Tuam/Oughterard RFC), Sinead O’Brien (Galwegians RFC), Fódhla Ní Bhraonáin (Tuam/Oughterard RFC).

Referee: Euan O’Riordan (IRFU)
Assistant Referees: David O’Driscoll, John Moynihan (both IRFU)