Some top women players must wait 10 months for league action but that won’t bother the champions, writes Sarah Lennon
After an extremely short season it was the final week in the women’s AIL. It seems bizarre to be writing about titles and relegation in November after 7 weekends of rugby, but that’s the way this season was designed. When the dust settled on the league at around 3pm on Sunday the players knew that it would be ten months before they played league rugby again. A strange situation and it remains to be seen whether this format continues into next season.
Another quirk of the season was that with eight teams there was an uneven amount of home and away games, with some teams having 4 games at home and others 3. In essence a defeat would leave you out of the running with very little time to make up lost ground. This is exactly how it turned out to be in this mini-season.
I wrote back in September that UL Boh’s were favourites going into this season and it was the women from Limerick who ultimately prevailed, securing the title with a win against Cooke in Belfast. That was hardly an outrageous prediction on my part with Boh’s having dominated this division over the last decade. I also tipped Highfield and Old Belvedere to be in close contention and so it proved. Highfield made all the early running with three crushing wins with the concession of just three points. These wins set an early trend that highlighted the gulf that is appearing between the top teams and the rest of the league.
It was two consecutive games in October that set UL Boh’s on course for another title. First they took on Old Belvedere in Limerick and the closest of matches was decided by a late try and conversion by Niamh Briggs as Boh’s took the points with a 10-9 win. The following week Boh’s prevailed over Highfield in Woodleigh Park. These results all but secured the title for the Robins before Hallowe’en, not the healthiest of situations for the league, but I’m quite sure that won’t bother Boh’s. The remainder of the league was a procession for Boh’s with almost 200 points scored in their remaining 3 matches for the concession of only 5 points.
The remaining contests as such were to decide the bottom team and the runner’s up spot. Tralee may have been early season favourites to struggle in the league but they posted some great results, finishing with one win and two draws and proving their place in the league is merited. The battle for the drop came to a head when Blackrock hosted Cooke in round 6. Both teams had struggled and the return of some of Blackrock’s more experienced players coupled with home advantage saw a narrow ‘Rock win secured. These 4 points proved to be crucial and kept Blackrock off the bottom at the end of the season by a one point margin.
I had said in my season preview that Highfield would be keen to shake off their ‘bridesmaids’ tags and they did that this season, but not in the way they would have hoped. After setting the early season running they came unstuck against Bohs in round 4 and then had a home match with Belvo on the last game of the season to shoot it out for 2nd place. Belvo who had been on the receiving end of a 1 point defeat in their previous trip to Munster, turned the table with a 1 point victory, sneaking a 6-5 win and securing 2nd place.
In a way it is a massive shame that there aren’t 7 more rounds of rugby or, as last season, a split between top and bottom for the season remainder. In a league that has seen such large margins of defeat at times there was remarkably little between the top two. Both Boh’s and Belvo shared the largest winning margin of 81-0, both teams had equal try bonus points with 5, points difference of 296 and the match between the two was decided by a single point. Boh’s are worthy champions but must know that the gap between them and the chasing pack is closer than ever, it’s just a shame that we will have to wait ten months for a resumption of the league contest.
The closeness of the match between the top two and their final standings bodes very well for this season’s Interpros as the bulk of the Leinster and Munster squads are made up from these two teams. Although the Munster team prevailed in the league, it is Leinster who will be looking to defend their provincial title and next week I will be previewing the eagerly anticipated Interpro series that kicks off on December 1st.
Sarah Lennon (@sarahlennon08) is passionate about all things rugby. A Leinster Season Ticket holder since the Donnybrook days, a supporter of the Irish teams home and abroad and can regularly be seen cheering on Junior Rugby at Stillorgan RFC (a labour of love). As well as spectating, she dabbles in playing a bit and is a member of Old Belvedere RFC and fully paid up member of the front row union.
