Women: AIL Week 3 Preview

Our Week 3 Preview of the Women’s All Ireland League features Cooke, Belfast Harlequins, City of Derry, Cavan and Queens University who will all be in action on Sunday afternoon.

Cooke take on Division 1 newcomers Tralee at Shaw’s Bridge and, despite Tralee’s comfortable win against Blackrock last time out, the Belfast side will be looking for a much needed win. After a disappointing start to the season for Cooke, who have had to substantially rebuild their side this year, I expect that the Ulster outfit will want the win just that little bit more and that should be enough to see them through in what should be a close encounter.

FRU Predicts: Cooke

The match of the weekend sees Belfast Harlequins host Garda at Deramore Park. Quins are sitting pretty at the top of the league having notched up a maximum of ten points from their two games this season but the Guards are hot on their heals and will be feeling pretty confident after a comfortable bonus point win against Navan. It should be a cracking match and Quins will have to up their forward effort if they are going to come out on top. However the Belfast side are a much tougher outfit up front this season and should they get parity up front I expect their classy backs to have the firepower to put this one away.

FRU Predicts: Quins

City of Derry face Cavan in an all Ulster encounter at Judge’s Road and the home side will be looking to notch up their first win of the season against a Cavan side missing some of their key players. A new look Derry struggled against Quins in their first outing this season but they showed enough in their second half revival to show that they’ll worry a few sides this season. If the home side can concentrate from the off this time round they should have enough to take this one.

FRU Predicts: City of Derry

Queen’s University travel to Navan in the match we’ll be covering this weekend. The students came away with  a surprisingly comfortable win against Enniskillen in their début match this season and they will hope to record their first win on the road in this encounter. Despite their opening day win against Cavan, the Leinster side will be feeling a little fragile after their match against Garda and with Queen’s expecting to field a few highly rated new players I expect that the students will be making it two from two.

FRU Predicts: Queens University. 

 

Women’s AIL: Week 3 Fixtures. 

Div1	Cooke	v	Tralee	Shaw’s Bridge
Div 2	Belfast Harlequins	v	Garda	Deramore Park
Div 2	City Of Derry	v	Cavan	Judge’s Road
Div 2	Navan RFC	v	Queen’s University	Balreask Old

AIL League 1

Pos		Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	Diff	TB	LB	Pts
1		Highfield	2	2	0	0	134	3	131	2	0	10
2		U.L. Bohemian	2	2	0	0	97	8	89	2	0	10
3		Old Belvedere	2	2	0	0	94	5	89	2	0	10
4		Galwegians	2	1	0	1	77	63	14	1	0	5
5		Tralee	2	1	0	1	37	53	-16	1	0	5
6		St. Mary’s	2	0	0	2	5	87	-82	0	0	0
7		Blackrock	2	0	0	2	3	106	-103	0	0	0
8		Cooke	2	0	0	2	12	134	-122	0	0	0

 

AIL League 2 

Pos		Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	Diff	TB	LB	Pts
1		Belfast Harlequins	2	2	0	0	86	0	86	2	0	10
2		Garda	1	1	0	0	48	0	48	1	0	5
3		Queens University	1	1	0	0	43	10	33	1	0	5
4		Navan RFC	2	1	0	1	18	63	-45	0	0	4
5		Cavan	2	0	0	2	15	61	-46	0	1	1
6		Enniskillen	1	0	0	1	10	43	-33	0	0	0
7		City Of Derry	1	0	0	1	0	43	-43	0	0	0