Railway Union consolidated their position at the top of the Women’s AIL with a hard fought 27 – 19 win against defending champions UL Bohemian on saturday afternoon at Park Avenue.

Susan Vaughan topped and tailed the home sides scoring with the centre bashing through the last line of the UL Bohs defence for her the first score of the afternoon. Claire Keohane converted to give the home side a 7 – 0 lead.

Bohs enjoyed a period of sustained pressure and, after coming close on a couple of occasions, Sarah Quin crossed, with Niamh Briggs adding the conversion to even the score. The first half was high on intensity but also high on error count as both sides struggled to turn territory into points. An unusually pragmatic Railway opted to ask Keohane to kick two first half penalties, one of which was successful, to give the home side a 10 – 7 lead at the break.

Railway put some space between the teams when Juliet Short sprinted clear to touch down close to the posts and with Keohane converting their lead was extended to ten points. However, Boh’s refused to lie down and veterans Briggs and Fiona Hayes were to the fore as they orchestrated their young side to move back up the pitch. A gleeful Quinn hit the line amongst a forest on Railway defenders, to reduce the arrears to three, following Briggs’ conversion.

Railway’s bench looked to make an impact over the next twenty minutes and the home side pulled away with a try from Katelyn Faust and Vaughn’s second, both unconverted, pushed the lead out to 13 points with ten minutes to go.

Bohs responded, but a late try from Briggs wasn’t enough and Railway held on to record a bonus point win.

Images below.