Fiona Coghlan's Rugby Diary What a season for UL Bohs RFC ladies’ team, winning every domestic trophy that we could! Having beaten Blackrock in the previous AIL cup final, we knew this last match would be a completely different task as they welcomed back numerous frontline internationals.
And the game didn’t exactly start well, either, delayed as it was by two hours when the referee deemed the pitch too hard to play on. We had to wait for the fire brigade to come and water the surface – that doesn’t happen every day.
Eventually we got started, and we were in control for most of the first half to put the score at 17-0 by half time. However, our out-half received a horrific ankle injury just before the break and we knew this would cause disruption.
Although our attacking play was somewhat hindered, our defence in the second half was immense and we were able to soak up everything that Blackrock threw at us. They probably should have scored, but some last-ditch tackling from our girls held our line intact, giving us a 17-0 victory.
That was our eighth AIL title in nine years – some achievement for the club and everyone that has been involved. Needless to say the celebration lasted a few days for the girls living in Limerick, although the rest of us could only enjoy one night of it.
Next up was my annual pilgrimage to the Kinsale Sevens with the Irish Vixens, the globetrotting sevens side managed by Tania Rosser. While Kinsale is the biggest and best rugby festival in Ireland, it also attracts a huge crowd of non-rugby-playing people to the picturesque Cork village, just for the craic.
We went down on Friday night just to soak up the atmosphere before the games were set to commence the following morning. Unfortunately the weather was not what it should have been for sevens: we were playing in hailstones instead of sun!
The Saturday competition is used for ranking for the cup competition on Sunday. We won all our games on Saturday, and knew if we continued playing well we were in with a good chance to win the competition.
With our work done for the day we headed into the town on Saturday night and joined in the brilliant carnival atmosphere. It was definitely a good thing that our Sunday games didn’t start until after lunch so we could have a bit of a lie-in.
Back on the pitch and we continued where we left off the previous day, winning all our games and making it to the final against a team from UL Bohs. It was a good game of sevens played in front of a big crowd, and with the sun shining. We won convincingly and celebrated in town with another big street party, with everyone in great spirits.
Sadly I didn’t get to see much of the Heineken Cup matches that weekend. I heard the better teams won on the day, even though there won’t be any Irish teams in the final this year. I don’t think we were helped much by the injuries sustained by frontline players. The French sides just have such spending power that they have greater depth in their squads.
And before I forget, what can I say about the Hunky Dorys ads? Everyone is talking about them, albeit not for the right reasons. I have received so many texts and e-mails to ask my opinion, but to be honest, I have no problem with them. I can understand why people might have an issue, but it doesn’t affect me or my sport.
Fiona Coghlan is an Irish International rugby player. Her column appears every fortnight in Metro Éireann
