Cournane Promises Shannon Will ‘Go Up There Fighting’ In Bid For Promotion

For Shannon, the prize is clear. Win at Parsonstown on Sunday afternoon and they are promoted. Lose, and the route becomes far more complicated.

Another game against the other losing semi-finalists, and if that is won, then a promotion-relegation play-off against the side that finishes bottom of the Energia All-Ireland League Women’s Division.

The clearest path could well be the hardest one. Go to Barnhall, where the standard is known, where the challenge is stark, and produce the kind of performance that can carry a club back to the level it believes it belongs at.

For Shannon captain Annakate Cournane, that possibility means more than an All-Ireland League place. It would represent progress for a project that has been building since she first came to the Limerick club five years ago, and a reward for the young group around her.

“I think it would be a huge thing for the club,” Cournane told IrishRugby.ie. “I suppose when I came to Shannon five years ago now, that was our main goal and it hasn’t changed in the years gone by.

“Shannon won the AIL in 2001. We’re trying to really get back there and develop the club again and try to get back to AIL level, and I suppose ultimately improve the standard of rugby and offer girls in Munster the opportunity to play AIL level.”

There is a clarity in that vision, a sense of purpose that has underpinned Shannon’s development over recent seasons. This is not a short-term project. It is a rebuild over many seasons, carefully constructed, rooted in underage pathways and sustained by a belief that success must be earned collectively.

“I suppose with Ennis going up last year, we’re trying to follow in their footsteps because obviously they were in our league last year and it would have been tightly contested,” she noted.

“So, we are kind of saying look Ennis have done it. We’re hoping to follow them, and they’re after having an unbelievable season with their first season in the AIL this year, so it’d be huge if we could get up as a club.”

The reference to Ennis is telling. It serves as both inspiration and a reminder. Proof that the leap from provincial competition to the national stage is possible, but also a benchmark for what is required to sustain it.

Shannon are standing where Ennis were twelve months earlier, and their Clare counterparts are thriving in a competition Shannon aim to be a part of next season.

The Limerick outfit fell short last season of staking their claim for promotion, but the lessons from that campaign have shaped everything that has followed.

“We have the backing of the club behind us and we’ve just been trying, from the start of the season, we’ve said we’re going to go for it this season. Last year I suppose we had a very young team and obviously with the calibre of players that Ennis had, they just beat us to it.

“I suppose going into the semi-final play-offs, we had a season together last year and we’re going to continue to build on it and I think that we have a good chance.”

That growth is evident not only in results, but in identity. Shannon have evolved into a team that understands itself, its strengths, its limitations, and its potential. The improvement from the early weeks of the season to now has been stark.

Yet, as fate would have it, their journey in national competitions has brought them full circle. Their opening match of the season was in the Energia All-Ireland Women’s Junior Cup against MU Barnhall, the very side they face this weekend.

On that day, the gap between the teams was clear, reflected in a 60-12 scoreline that served as a harsh but necessary lesson. It has become a reference point, not as a reminder of defeat, but as a measure of progress.

Shannon have spent the months since then becoming the top side in Munster, winning the Division 1 League and Cup titles, refining their game, and building the physical and mental resilience required for this level.

“There’s no doubt about it, Barnhall, they’re such a physical team in the pack, they’re quick, and then their backs are electric,” acknowledged back rower Cournane.

“They’re just a really really talented side but from the game in September, we took away so much that we could actually build on and learn from Barnhall.

“When we went out maybe we were a little bit struck at the pace they were playing at and the physicality, but like a lot of those girls that on our team have never played at that level or that pace before.

“We kept with them for the first 30 minutes and it was a really tough game. I think it was only 12-0, 30 minutes in, and then they kind of just pulled away in the second half. Again, that was probably match fitness.

“A lot of the girls here are up in college in Limerick. We had a strong pre-season in terms of doing CrossFit just getting our fitness up. We have minutes in the legs now and we’re a bit more comfortable with our playing style and how we want to achieve scoring tries.

“I think it will be a really hard contest on Sunday, there’s no doubt about it, but I think the girls are really ready to stand up and show that we have improved so much since September, and hopefully that’s kind of implemented on the scoreline.”

That detail matters. It highlights the fine margins that define rugby at this level, not just skill or structure, but conditioning, experience, and the ability to sustain performance over 80 minutes.

Now, as they prepare to face Barnhall again, there is a quiet confidence within the Shannon squad. Not arrogance, but belief born from evidence. That belief is underpinned by a group that, while young, is rich in potential.

“I think, like, the club have put in so much effort into building an actual underage structure in the club. Our Under-14 girls have already won silverware this year, and they’re meant to have a final again there at the weekend.

“Our Under-18s are contesting in semi-finals as well and finals, so we’re just building underage pathways and we want to be a club where girls can start from Under-8s to ultimately progress to senior.

“They have the talent from a young age and they just fit into senior squads straight away. All our U-18s coming up in the last two years have really, really made a positive impact in the club. They just fit in so well.

“They’re ready for the physicality, they have a rugby brain from playing rugby at such a young age, and they have the cornerstones and the skills that you don’t necessarily have to teach them, rather than when the girls only started at 18 or 20.

“They have the experience under their belt, and we have a lot of talent representation in the Munster U-18s as well, and U-17s, and I suppose those pathways being put in by Munster as well, they’re really helping clubs around.

“Just the U-18 girls, I can’t give them enough praise really coming in, standing up straight away. We have a really, really young team, I think like the average age in our back-line is about 21.

“There’s just so much talent there and I suppose it’s just trying to come together for this big game on Sunday, and just trying to come back up to the AIL.”

The result is a squad that blends youth with emerging leadership, a dynamic that has been particularly evident during Cournane’s time away with the Clovers in this season’s Celtic Challenge competition.

“I think when I went into the Clovers, it was a bit of a shock but I suppose all the girls were so welcoming. I can’t say enough about them. I came in nearly mid-season and they were just so helpful (with me) learning the calls and everything.

“I’ve been in the Munster senior set-up for two years now, but the Clovers is another step up again. I’m really, really enjoying it, just getting the experience and travelling abroad playing the Scottish and Welsh sides – some of the girls obviously have international caps and stuff like that.

“I’m learning so much and I think hopefully now when I go back to Shannon I can bring everything that I’ve learned back to the club. Help the girls and my own team to develop and play at a higher tempo, and just play smarter rugby from the things that I’ve learned. That’s the plan anyway.”

For Cournane herself, the journey to this point of being the Shannon captain preparing for their biggest game in recent history, has been anything but straightforward.

Growing up in Caherdaniel in South Kerry, one of the most beautiful corners of the country, rugby was not the obvious choice. The area is steeped in Gaelic football tradition, where the oval ball is far less common than the GAA equivalent.

Cournane still paved a path into the sport. She started with Iveragh Eagles in Cahersiveen before moving to Abbeyfeale because there was no underage girls team in her home area.

The miles became part of the story. After that it was Shannon, mixed with time in Ballincollig, and now senior appearances for Munster and the Clovers.

It is not just Annakate that has made long journeys from Kerry. Her own family reflects that diversity of rugby pathways. Her sister Ellie (pictured below) lines out with Ballincollig in the All-Ireland League.

Their brother Conall was part of the successful Christian Brothers College Cork team in the Munster Schools Senior Cup last year, and is now paving his own path in Men’s Division 1B with UCC. Their dad Tony is involved in coaching.

Michael O’Sullivan is another player that has come out of Iveragh. He starred for Blackrock College when they went back-to-back in the Leinster Schools Senior Cup last year. Like Conall, he is now donning the colours of UCC. The miles have been long for them and Annakate, but she believes it is all paying off now.

“I think a lot is to be said like for my own club at home. It is huge for Iveragh Eagles that I’m playing rugby up here in Limerick and I’m captaining Shannon. Then my sister Ellie plays with Ballincollig, and my brother Conall and Michael O’Sullivan, they’re both playing for UCC now in the AIL.

“We do have talent down in South Kerry and it is really important that that’s harvested and noticed by Munster. We do have a load of girls coming up who are playing with the likes of Killorglin, Iveragh, Castleisland, and Listowel, and it’s really benefiting them.

“They’re in the PTS (Provincial Talent Squad) structures, and it just really shows that there is talent everywhere. It just has to be identified. Travelling to Abbeyfeale when I was Under-14, a two-hour trip up and down wasn’t ideal, but I suppose it’s paid off now, all the miles.

“Up to a Munster U-18 training from Kerry. Caherdaniel is a three-hour trip, so I suppose it’s really paid off. But if you told me that when I was kicking around a rugby ball when I was U-10 in Iveragh Eagles that I’d be captaining Shannon going into an AIL promotion play-off, it would be very hard to believe.”

Now living and working in Limerick, the miles for Annakate are a lot shorter than the three-hour commute back to South Kerry. Shannon became more than just a club, it became a home. A platform for growth, and ultimately, a place where she would develop into a leader.

Her progression through the Munster age-grade system, culminating in an Under-18 Interprovincial title in 2022, was followed by involvement at senior level and, more recently, selection in Denis Fogarty’s Clovers squad.

Cournane will have a busy weekend ahead. The 22-year-old will feature at blindside flanker in Saturday’s Celtic Challenge final against the Wolfhounds in Edinburgh. The following day, it is all about Parsonstown, and a 3pm kick-off, and trying to get promoted back to the AIL.

“I think we’re going to be going after a really fast start (against Barnhall). We don’t really have any time, I suppose, in this level of a game. An AIL promotion play-off you don’t have any time settling into a game.

“We’re hoping for a really sharp quick warm-up and then just start the game straight away and build into the game. Keep the foot on the throttle for the whole 80 minutes. We know it is going be an 80-minute game.

“They are not gonna lie down, and I think like a load has to be said for the girls that have stood up since I’ve been gone with the Clovers. There’s so many leaders now.

“When I’m going back to training, I wouldn’t have the opportunity to be there as much as I’d like, obviously training with the Clovers and stuff, but the girls have really really stood up.

“Since I’ve come back to the odd training, I can really see that we’re coming into our own and the girls are just such leaders now.

“We have a leadership group but everyone’s standing up, and it is really positive watching from the sideline which is really good to see.

“So for the girls who haven’t played in a game this big ever. I think it’s going to have to fall on the shoulders of the older ones and then maybe the more experienced girls just to bring them along. It’s just a game of rugby at the end of the day.”

For Shannon, promotion on Sunday would be transformative. Not because it would complete the journey. It would place their Women’s team back where the club’s history says it belongs. Not as a nostalgic gesture to 2001, but as part of a modern, younger, more sustainable future.

If they lose, there is still another path. But the clean, emphatic route lies in front of them now. On the road, against the strongest possible opposition. The kind of test that can either harden a team forever or leave a scar.

“I think that is what we’re going to keep telling ourselves – we started rugby when we were younger just to have fun, and no matter how big a game is, you kind of have to bring it back to the fundamentals of when you started this sport.

“You had fun so you just want to go out and despite all the pressure at the end of the day, obviously it’s a humongous opportunity for the club to go back up to the AIL. But I think we play our best rugby when we’re playing fun rugby.

“I suppose just transitioning from attack to defence and taking every opportunity and playing quick rugby. Probably have to play smarter than Barnhall, they might have more experience than us but we kind of like the underdog title.

“Barnhall might have more to lose so that kind of suits us. We’re going to go up there fighting and (are) ultimately not going to lie down,” added Cournane.

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