Ulster Women, seeded 4th, travelled to St Mary’s RFC, Templelogue, Dublin on Saturday afternoon to play Leinster Women, seeded 1st, in the semi final of the Women’s Interprovincial Championship.

Report and pictures Bob Given Photography

Despite a few individual performances in defence, it was an afternoon when Ulster women came off second best in all aspects of the game.

Ulster lost the services of their international prop Ilse van Staden before kick off and they could not secure set piece ball and in the loose were smashed off the ball by a very dominant back row.

The scene was set very early on when Leinster scored a converted try from Michelle Claffey after only 3 minutes. Ulster survived waves of attacks, before making their way up-field, where scrum half, Jemma Jackson, converted a penalty goal on 24 minutes after good work by Beth Cregan.

However, sloppy defence in securing the kick off allowed Leinster in for a Lindsay Peat converted try a minute later.

Sporadic Ulster attacks were repulsed and Leinster racked up their third try, through Clodagh Dunne, on 32 minutes to leave the score at half time 19 – 3 in Leinster’s favour.

Ulster will prefer to forget the 2nd half.

It was one way traffic with Ulster only getting out of their own half, after they kicked off after yet another score. Leinster piled on the pressure scoring 6 tries with Peat crossing for her second alongside Larissa Muldoon, Megan Williams, Molly Scuffil-McCabe, Elise O’Byrne-White and Katie O’Dwyer. Hanna O’Connor converted seven of the nine tries to give a record breaking 59 – 3 win for a rampant Leinster.

LEINSTER: Grace Miller (Old Belvedere), Elise O’Byrne-White (Old Belvedere), Michelle Claffey (Blackrock), Sene Naoupu (Old Belvedere) (C), Megan Williams (Old Belvedere), Larissa Muldoon (Railway Union), Ailsa Hughes (Railway Union); Lindsay Peat (Railway Union), Victoria Dabavonich-O’Mahony (Old Belvedere), Linda Djougang (Old Belvedere), Clodagh Dunne (Old Belvedere), Judy Bobbett (Blackrock), Jeamie Deacon (Blackrock), Juliet Short (Railway Union), Hannah O’Connor (Blackrock). Replacements: Jennie Finlay (Old Belvedere), Christy Haney (Blackrock), Katie O’Dwyer (Railway Union), Aoife McDermott (Railway Union), Daisy Earle (Railway Union), Molly Scuffil-McCabe (Railway Union), Jenny Murphy (Old Belvedere), Aimee Clarke (Railway Union).

ULSTER: Ella Durkan (Malone), Lucinda Kinghan (Ireland Sevens), Maeve Liston (Cooke), Kelly McCormill (Cooke), Emma Jordan (Malone), Vicky Irwin (Cooke), Jemma Jackson (Old Belvedere), Megan Brodie (Exile), Stacey-Lea Kennedy (City of Derry), Ilse van Staden (Cooke), Chloe McIlwaine (Malone), Lauren Maginnes (Malone), Katie Hetherington (Cooke), Neve Jones (Malone), Beth Cregan (Cooke) (C). Replacements: Emma Kearney (Cooke), Aishling O’Connell (Cooke), Shannon Heapes (Cooke), Shannon Buller (Queen’s University), Keelin Brady (MU Barnhall), Kathryn Dane (Old Belvedere), Diane Ramsay (Queen’s University), Holly Brannigan (Malone).

Match Gallery Below

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