Ennis RFC 5 Killarney RFC 8
In a real glory day for the club, Killarney Rugby Club’s under 18.5 girls travelled to Old Crescent RFC in Limerick at the weekend and defeated last year’s league winner Ennis to be crowned Munster League champions.
The clash of Ennis and Killarney was always going to be battle and that’s exactly what it was. Ennis started the game and kicked deep and Killarney, unfortunately, didn’t deal with the kick-off and Ennis had a scrum in a very favourable position on the Killarney 22.
After a serious of good carries by the Ennis forwards, they scored a try in the corner, which wasn’t converted, and it was a perfect start from the Clare team.
What was very notable that Killarney took this early setback in their stride and, straight away, they were on the attack but the Ennis defence held firm despite a serious of good carries by Killarney forwards Lily Morris, Ava O’Malley and Clodagh Foley.
On 18 minutes Killarney had a scrum just inside their own half and number eight Ava O’Malley made a super run before linking up with scrum half Bronagh Dorrian who passed to Cara Reilly.
The referee blew for an Ennis offside infringement and awarded a penalty to Killarney and Fia Whelan slotted over the penalty to leave it 5-3.
Killarney’s back three of Marina Eagar, Holly O’Sullivan and Mary-Ellen McDonald dealt very well with Ennis pressure and linked to counter-attack on most occasions.
With 24 minutes on the clock, a scrum to Killarney on the right-hand side of the field saw O’Malley picking from the base and out-stripped their defence to make a brilliant run. She linked with the onrushing powerful Joanne O’Keefe who made further ground then it was time to show what the Killarney backs could do.
They finished a fine move in style, going through the hands of Dorrian, Whelan out to Eagar, who had joined in from full back, to link with Ali O’Donoghue who carried well then gave a perfect pass to the Glencar flyer Mary-Ellen McDonald to finish off a super team try which wasn’t converted.
The second half was a real battle between two very closely matched teams and it was Killarney who did most of the pressing and had several kickable penalties.
In the last five minutes of the game Holly O’Sullivan was deemed to be held up over the line and Morris was just short of scoring after a strong carry. It was a fitting end of the game and a glory day for Killarney with the win sparking great celebrations.
Co-coach Diarmuid O’Malley said: “This is a very special team. They always looked to improve and put the hard work in. Sometimes in life you don’t always get what you feel you deserve but, thankfully, we just about came out on top against an excellent Ennis team”.
Killarney: Annie O’Reilly, Emma Dunican, Emer O’Keeffe, Joanne O’Keefe, Ella Guerin-Crowley, Clodagh Foley, Lily Morris (joint captain), Ava O’Malley, Bronagh Dorian, Fia Whelan (joint captain), Holly O’Sullivan, Cara Reilly, Ali O’Donoghue, Mary-Ellen McDonald, Marina Eagar, Molly Gabbett, Melissa McCarthy, Sarah O’Connor, Isabella O’Leary, Nell Crowley, Jess O’Sullivan, Jasmine Dwyer.
Coaches: Josh Whelan and Diarmuid O’Malley
Manager: Elaine Clifford
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