Leinster League 03/10/10

Kilkenny 10-14 Tullow

Kilkenny ladies made their home league debut on Sunday with a lunchtime kick off against Tullow who have been playing for over four years together. Kilkenny had come off two impressive wins over the week with a hard earned win against Arklow the week before followed by an emphatic victory mid week against Waterford city.

Immediately from the off Kilkenny laid out their intentions with some good hard running rugby and some ferocious tackling from centre Susan Battle. However despite Kilkenny’s early dominance they failed to put a score on the board. The deadlock was broken, however, in the 25th minute by former Munster u19 prop Kelly McGuiness who crashed over the line as a result of some great work by Heather Purcell, Sheila Kelly and Mags Hennessy.

After getting their noses in front Kilkenny’s concentration shut off. For the next ten minutes the Tullow ladies camped in their opponents 22 with wave after wave of attack. However the Kilkenny girls stood strong putting their bodies on the line to make sure they didn’t concede at half time.

Straight from the kick off Tullow sparked in to life with some strong hard direct running. Kilkenny’s indiscipline at the breakdown allowed the Tullow girls to claw their way up the pitch which resulted in a try from a maul. The conversion was successful 7-5.

After re-grouping Kilkenny played with purpose and began to carve open the Tullow ladies at will but again failed to get over the try line. In the 52nd minute the breakthrough came in the result of Susan Battle who dived in for a try after some great work by Mary Broderick, Yvonne Hickey, Emily Murtagh, Jenny Daly and Ciara Coone.

Again the Kilkenny ladies shut off allowing Tullow to score under the posts in the dying moments to snatch the victory from Kilkenny.

Overall Kilkenny’s indiscipline and inexperience cost them the game but the Kilkenny coaching staff pointed out some very encouraging signs for the team who are improving with every game.


Kilkenny’s next match is this coming Sunday with a tough away trip to Rathdrum away Sunday 1pm.