Ulster Women went down by 26 points to 3 in the opening Inter Provincial at Ravenhill on Saturday afternoon. The final score masks a much improved performance from Ulster who were competitive for much of the opening exchanges though Leinster’s superior fitness allowed the Dublin side to pull away in the second half.

Ulster started the game the better of the two sides and their aggressive defence forced quite a few errors from their opponents. Driving runs from Lauren Day, Glenda Mellon, Nikita Armstrong and Brigid Reynolds kept play in the the Leinster half and Grace Davitt opened the scoring for the home side, slotting over her second penalty attempt, as Ulster looked good value for their early lead.

Injuries to both of Ulster’s centres, Laura Nichol and Claire McLaughlin, opened the door for the Dublin based outfit and on the half hour mark and they took full advantage with two well worked tries to put the visitor into a 3 – 14 lead.

Ulster re-organised with Nikki Caughey and Rachael Fleming coming on in midfield and the home team defended well for the remainder of the half with no further score.

Leinster put Ulster under intense pressure at the start of the second half but Ulster’s well marshaled defence managed to cope with the attacks though it was becoming obvious that Leinster were beginning to dominate the breakdown with the Ulster girls beginning to tire. The visitors pressed hard and only desperate defence from the home team kept them out.

Unfortunately Ulster suffered another loss of a key player when Eliza Downey was yellow carded for a flying smash on Nora Stapleton with the line wide open but Downey’s failure to use her arms in contact left the ref with no option but to send her to the bin.

Leinster grabbed another try while the Cooke fullback was kicking her heels on the bench and Ulster were restricted to the occasional breakout through wingers Ashleigh Baxter and Zoe Templeton with the latter unlucky to be crowded out ot the end of a pitch long kick and chase.

The game looked to be petering out, but the visitors roused themselves for one last effort driving over from a lineout close to the line for the final score of the match giving Leinster a slightly flattering 26 – 3 win.

Despite the scoreline Ulster will be pleased with impressive debut’s from Nikki Caughey, Ashleigh Baxter, Gemma McCutcheon, Poppy Cleall, Larissa Muldoon, Laura Feely and Caroline Kelly. On the injury front Laura Nicholl was able to return to the pitch later in the game but there will be concerns over Claire McLaughlin with an ankle injury.

Speaking after the game captain Lizzie Ballentine told the Front Row Union:

“We’re disappointed with the result, more so than last season, because we were so much better than we were this time last year. The real turning point was the 2 minute spell in the first half when they went from 3-0 down to 14-3 up. The fact that we let them score a second from kick off from their first try was poor on our part but the way everybody stepped up after that was impressive.

“We had chances to take points and the first twenty minutes of the match belonged to us but I think there needs to be an improvement in our match fitness, the fact that their scores came late in either half shows the work we still need to do in that area.

“The new caps stepped up and hopefully everybody will learn something from this match that we can use to improve for next week against Munster.“

Ulster Women now travel to Limerick next Saturday to face Munster in the second game of the Interprovincial Series.