The women’s Combined Provinces side hosted the Welsh Development side at Kingspan on Saturday evening in their third Celtic Challenge match. We sent along our Academy players Cara McLean and Ruby Starrett to cover the game.

The Irish side have been setting the pace in this new competition, winning their away game to the Welsh Development side at the end of January and beating the Scottish Thistles at home a few weeks ago but it was the visitors that set the early pace.

After the initial pressure from the Welsh the first half settled into a midfield battle. The Development side enjoyed the bulk of territory and possession but the Combined Provinces’ enthusiastic defence largely kept them out of their red zone.

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