Ulster Women slumped to their heaviest defeat, in recent years, at the Sportsground, Galway, with Connacht running out winners by 39 – 5 on Saturday afternoon.

Ulster’s sole try came from a combined effort by Sorcha Chipperfield and Ilse Van Staden, with the latter getting the final touch, and, apart from a late disallowed try in the final minutes, that was about it from Ulster.

I must say, in my eight years of covering Women’s rugby in Ulster, Ireland and beyond, it’s one of the hardest women’s matches I’ve had to watch but I guess the truth is it’s a fair enough marker as to how far women’s rugby in Ulster has fallen behind the other provinces in recent seasons.

Ulster were, once again, completely outgunned at the breakdown with poor technique in contact providing Connacht an almost continuous supply of ball – and that’s basically the story of the game.

It’s no coincidence that the contact area is the main area that the IRFU and the National Women’s Squad have been working on in recent seasons. However the lack of attendance of Ulster Women’s coaches, in the past, at any of the women’s coaching and skills seminars has come home to roost and it’s now having a detrimental effect on the players. I know all the other provincial coaches have taken the time to attend national camps and seminars to learn and engage.

The National Squad and the other provinces have realised the importance of getting the basics right and have reaped the rewards accordingly but the lack of communication and synchronised training with the rest of the women’s game in Ireland has proved a massive barrier for those Ulster players who, a few years ago, had realistic international ambitions. Now they are falling further and further behind and those fortunate enough to be invited to national sessions are playing catch up from day one.

Inevitably, as Ulster Women’s Rugby and the Branch appear to have slid off the pace, it’s been the clubs that have suffered. Cooke have dropped out of AIL 1 into the, exclusively Ulster based, AIL 2N. Belfast Harlequins have effectively folded and City of Derry who folded two seasons ago are trying to regroup though, to be honest, there is so little information available about the women’s league that I don’t know if they are going to be in AIL 2N or in the development league.  Effectively we’ll have Cooke and Queen’s slugging it out for a couple of matches and Enniskillen causing a few upsets and that’s it. Three quality games per season is not enough for this group of players to develop.

Ulster Women’s Rugby and the Branch can do one of two things from this point on. They can sit back and do very little while Ulster continues to be the only province with declining senior player numbers and declining senior clubs in the women’s game or they can take action to halt the slide and here’s a few suggestions:

• Insist that Ulster women’s coaches attend national training camps to find out the level that the players are expected to aspire to and train the players accordingly. I’ve always been made welcome at Ireland Women’s training camps and I’ve always found the national coaches willing to share their insights.
• Organise more games. Invite English, Scottish, Welsh teams of a suitable standard to play the top Ulster clubs in their off weeks or facilitate the Ulster teams travel for much needed games.
• Organise a four team invitational tournament for the end of season for an Ulster Select squad to compete in. Player performance in this tournament will form selection for the following seasons Ulster squad.
• Organise a couple of pre-season matches for the same Ulster squad.
• Insist that Ulster Rugby senior players and management invest one hour a month with a women’s team to assist with training and recruitment. 

Now I’m sure the powers that be will find plenty of issues with the above though, with the exception of having to organise additional games due to their much more competitive leagues, all the other provinces appear to have involvement in most of the other suggestions.

Training and playing for Ulster should be seen as part of the pathway to international honours not an end in itself. We need to offer our women the best support, coaches and management available for this journey. For the sake of our women players Ulster cannot continue to stand alone. No more the “Ulster Way”, they must reach out and grasp “Ireland’s way”.

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