All our hard work came to fruition on 25 April when my club UL Bohs took home the AIL championship.
I headed down to Limerick on the Friday night before the AIL final against Blackrock, so we could all travel as a team on the bus. It was a bit of a trek back up to the midlands to get to Athlone, but everyone remained calm and relaxed for the journey.
One of our injured players, Carol Murphy, produced a short video of all our highlights from throughout the year, which we watched on the way. She epitomises the character of our squad: she’s been injured all year but has still attended every training session and match.
At the warm-up, everyone was focused and things were clicking into place. Our training session the week before was very specific for this game and how to stop Blackrock.
From the first whistle we were camped inside the Blackrock half. We were in control of the situation and after some patient phases, our speedster Jeanette scorched in on the wing. Not content to settle for that try, Jeanette was back on the score sheet just 10 minutes later.
We then fell asleep for the remainder of the half and allowed Blackrock too much possession, but our defence was excellent and Blackrock never looked like they would cross our line.
In the second half Blackrock started the better team and were rewarded with a well-deserved try. But this was probably the moment that gave us the wake-up call we needed, as we followed that up with three tries of our own.
The final score was 33–7 to us, which doesn’t accurately reflect the amount of possession that Blackrock had, but does show just how resolute our defence was.
It was an incredible day for the team, in particular Joy Neville and Paula O’Connor, two players who transferred from Shannon to win their first AIL after being in a number of finals.
Sadly I wasn’t at Croke Park last weekend to see Leinster and Munster in the All Ireland semi-final, as I was already committed to the Kinsale Sevens.
I was playing with the Irish Vixens, an invitational side organised by Irish scrumhalf Tania Rosser. Normally she has a full quota of talented sevens players, but this year she was stuck, so she asked me to join. As a prop, I wouldn’t be an ideal candidate for sevens rugby. However, we did really well on the Saturday, winning all our games and defeating the Wooden Spoons charity team in the final. On Sunday we again played very well and made the final again, only for the Spoons to get their revenge!
The atmosphere in Kinsale was buzzing all weekend, making it a brilliant social event, as well as an opportunity for some great rugby.
Of course I couldn’t miss out on the big match at Croker completely. Kinsale Rugby Club always puts up a big marquee for the weekend, and this year it was furnished with two screens for the Heineken Cup semi-final.
I was delighted for the Leinster boys. The manner in which they played was amazing and it was fitting for long-time servants of the game like O’Driscoll and O’Kelly to have a chance in a final. They just didn’t allow Munster to play; their defence was awesome and the tries they scored were excellent.
I wish them all the very best of luck in the final, and I think the entire country should get behind them and scream not only for Leinster, but also for Irish rugby.
Fiona Coghlan is an Irish International rugby player. Her column appears every fortnight in Metro Éireann
