What a response we had for our Dream Team nominations with 17, 661 votes cast, the votes not only coming from Ireland and the UK but from 51 different countries with the USA, New Zealand, France, Australia and Canada all showing substantial activity.

It was fun watching how the voting proceeded with the Munster mafia first to get mobilized followed by a lot of activity round Dublin and a late, well timed, surge from Galway.

Such was the interest we’ve decided to announce a 23 player squad for the Dream Team, and you never know, we might get a challenge match organised for charity once things return to normal.

Given, the quality of the nominations I knew this was going to be a good team. It’s slightly different that he one I envisaged, and some big names have missed out, but it’s a team I’d happily put forward against any other women’s side in these islands.

Unsurprisingly, our Team of the Season, UL Bohemian, lead the way with 7 starting nominations and 1 replacement. Next up we have Railway Union with 3 starting players and 3 replacements followed by Galwegians with 3 starts and Blackrock with 1 start and 2 replacements. Malone and Old Belvedere make up the numbers with 1 start and 1 replacement respectively.

The replacements were selected as the player with the second highest number of votes in the relevant position, or positions, as appropriate.

The Front Row Union Dream Team

Position	Total Votes	Player	Club	Votes
1. Loosehead	1202	Chloe Pearse	UL Bohemian	545
2. Hooker	1288	Kate Sheehan	UL Bohemian	512
3. Tighthead	1258	Fiona Reidy	UL Bohemian	567
4. Second Row	1396	Ciara O’Halloran	UL Bohemian	548
5. Second Row	1063	Clodagh O’Halloran	UL Bohemian	460
6. Blind Side	1448	Edel Murphy	UL Bohemian	669
7. Openside	1045	Ciara Griffin	UL Bohemian	576
8. Number 8	1186	Deirdre Roberts	Railway Union	482
9. Scrumhalf	1626	Mary Healey	Galwegians	783
10. Outhalf	1799	Niclole Fowley	Galwegians	775
11. Left Wing	741	Steph Carroll	Railway Union	309
12. Centre	711	Michelle Claffey	Blackrock	320
13. Centre	838	Aoife Doyle	Railway Union	424
14. Right Wing	1075	Ursula Salmon	Galwegians	474
15. Fullback	985	Ella Durkan	Malone	388
16. Rep. FR	—	Lisa Callan	Railway Union	428
17. Rep. FR	—	Lyndsey Peat	Railway Union	498
18. Rep. FR	—	Katie O’Dwyer	Railway Union	518
19. Rep. SR	—	Judy Bobbett	Blackrock	489
20. Rep. BR	—	Caoihme Molloy	Blackrock	508
21. Rep. HB	—	Jemma Jackson	Old Belvedere	739
22. Rep. C	—	Rachel Allen	UL Bohemian	249
23. Rep. BT	—	Larissa Muldoon	Railway Union	338

The captaincy of such a fine team should go to the player with the highest number of individual votes and the Galwegians half back pairing came first and second in this regard with Mary Healy just piping Nicole Fowley by 8 votes.

However, this pair will be doing enough chittering throughout the game 😀 so I’m going to indulge myself and name Malone and Ulster’s Ella Durkan as captain, with the brief to run everything from full back as we look to enforce a Barbarians style of rugby. With that bench, we have a plethora of players to come on and close out the game.

Thanks to everyone that took part and congratulations to all the players nominated and, of course, to the selected players above. After seeing some of those voting campaigns in action I should get some of you to run the membership campaign for the site. 🙂

You can view all the votes here.