Omagh Academical RFC Women travelled to Stevenson Park to play Dungannon Women in their opening Deloitte Premiership match on Sunday afternoon. 

The match featured two substantial stoppages due to injury and, with player welfare to the fore, the match was suspended until the ambulances arrived. 

The stoppages did break the game into three distinct periods and it was Omagh who very much dominated the first period as they ran in two tries, the first from Siobhan Sheerin, converted by Sarah Beckett, and the second from Carrie McGowan who went over out wide for an unconverted try. 

The first stoppage happened shortly due to an injury to a Dungannon player after and it was almost a full hour before the next score. 

Dungannon came out of the extended break in fine form as the teams resumed in a torrential downpour and after playing through the deluge a period of sustained pressure on the Omagh line ended with Julie Anne Garvey sneaking in over in the corner for the home sides opening score. the teams changed ends shortly after with  Omagh holding on to a 5 – 12 lead. 

The Accies came out with all guns blazing at the start of the second half with powerhouse centre Sheerin slicing through the Dungannon defence to push the core along to 5 – 19 before we had our second extended break, this time for an injury to an Omagh player. 

The match resumed just before 3:30 pm, two and a half hours after kick off with just over 30 minutes to be played and the players certainly left the best for last with five tries scored in this final period. 

Dungannon’s hard working No 8 Colleen McCance got the ball rolling  as she battled her way over the line for an unconverted try before The Front Row Union Player of the Game, Siobhan Sheerin banged in a brace for Omagh, both converted to rattle the scoreboard along to 10 -33 in Omagh’s favour. 

The home side refused to lie down and McCance battled over for her second, converted by Beattie, after besieging the Omagh line for 10 minutes but they never got to grips with Sheerin who fittingly ended the scoring with her fifth try, out wide, after good work by Beckett. 

Final score: Dungannon 17 Omagh 38

It may have taken the players three hours to complete this match, but it’s taken us six hours to get this huge gallery ready!

Huge Gallery Below

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