A relieved Niamh Briggs kicks clear to end the game against Ulster on Saturday.
Ulster and Munster Women produced a fantastic game of rugby on Saturday afternoon at Garryowen Rugby Club, Limerick.
With the match in doubt right up to the point that Munster and Ireland full back Niamh Briggs booted the ball off the pitch it would be fair to say that both sets of players were still pretty pumped when we caught up with them shortly after the final whistle.
First up it was Ulster Captain Lizzie Ballentine who was out on her feet after a huge effort from the Ulster girls.
Well Lizzie can you still speak after that game? The girls gave it all today.
Ulster are back! Those are the three words. Ulster are back! They were amazing today.
We talked about it before the game, about the 20 minutes we had at the start of the game against Leinster and we wanted those for 80 minutes today, and we sure got 80 minutes.
We are back, and Connacht next week … it’s gong to be awesome! Connacht are going well this year and they are going to be a strong physical challenge. We have to look for further improvement!
Next we caught up with the legendary Briggsy, the classy fullback for Munster and Ireland who had to be at the top of her form to prevent Ulster from snatching the win at the end.
It was a great effort from Ulster today, was it a surprise for Munster?
No, definitely not, no. I think you know that every time you play Ulster you are going to be up for a very good battle. They are a very physical side and they have come on leaps and bounds over the last few seasons.
It’s reassuring that each year they are getting stronger and stronger and they’ve brought in a few Exiles this year which has made them much bigger and stronger again.
No it definitely wasn’t a surprise for us at all.
There’s a lot of exciting youngsters in the backs, what did you think of their performance?
Brilliant, I thought 13 [Nikki Caughey] played very well, Larissa [Muldoon] played very well when she came on and Poppy [Cleall] made a big difference when she came on.
Having said that, you can have great young girls but you need a few old heads like Grace Davitt to keep them organised and structured and I think she had an outstanding game today.
Finally we had chat with Nikki Caughey, one of those exciting youngsters who, as well as celebrating her 19th birthday last week, made her Ulster debut when she came on for the injured Claire McLaughlin in the game against Leinster. After being bumped to the starting line up this week, Nikki opened the scoring for Ulster, with her try early in the second half reigniting the Ulster effort.
So what was it like scoring for Ulster in your first start?
Unreal, absolutely unreal. It would have been nice if it had been last week, on my birthday, but I’ll let that one go! (Laughs). Hopefully more to come!
How did you think the young back line performed?
I think it was fantastic. We were getting it out the backline well. When our forwards can hit a few phases and we can get it wide, we’ve really got speed on other teams. I think we shocked Munster a wee bit and we shocked ourselves at the start, but we really got stuck into it and played to our strengths.
So how much are you looking forward to the Connacht game next week?
Psyched, completely psyched! I think everyone is especially after a finish like that. We were unlucky not to get another penalty or another try but after that finish against a team like Munster, and you have them on the ropes, well, you just can’t wait to get out and play again.
This young side have been promising a performance like this for a while now, and now that they have found it they have to continue to improve.
This Saturday’s game against Connacht at Ballymoney RFC (KO 2:30pm) becomes even more important and the girls have to show that it wasn’t a one off performance, but the first of many.
This Women’s Rugby – it’s the highlight of my rugby packed weekends’ already - but I can’t wait for this Saturday to roll round!
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