Women’s Rugby 

Leinster League Division 2 

Report: David McKeown

Photos: Michael Linehan

Naas 80 UCD 7 

After a rousing performance against league leaders Wicklow last week, Naas Women continued their fine run of form with an utterly dominant 80 point demolition of UCD on Sunday in Forenaughts.  

It took 13 minutes for Naas centre Emily Mckeown to open the soring for the home team, as the visitors started brightly with no sign of the collapse to come. Another 7 minutes passed before Cliodhna O’Connor scored the first of her 4 tries on the day, outpacing a gutsy UCD defence to run in from her own 22. Jamie Garland then showed she could match O’Connor for pace by beating the UCD winger on the outside and scoring under the posts. The ever-reliable Amy McGuire continued her 100% kicking record up to that point in the game, making the score 21 nil after 25 minutes.  

Naas scored two more tries before half time, through Mckeown and O’Connor, but UCD scored one of their own after some direct running to make the score 31 points to 7 at half time. 

2 minutes into the second half, Naas applied more pressure through their industrious scrum half Ciara Mckeown, whose darting break led to a score for the impressive Katie Halpin. UCD were starting to look a little ragged at this point, and Naas started to play simple, direct rugby which proved unstoppable. Strong running from hooker Emma Tully and powerful centre Sheena Hubbard resulted in two more tries for O’Connor, with the score now 45 points to 7 at the 50-minute mark. 

Things went from bad to worse for the students when the Naas scrum started to turn the screw. Referee Koen had no hesitation in awarding a scrum penalty to the Kildare women. Scrum half Mckeown took a quick tap and fed the athletic 18-year-old Abbie Cleary who burst free to score under the posts. McGuire predictably added the conversion to give Naas a lead of 59 points to 7. 

Hubbard then scored a try of her own, and then caught the subsequent restart, set off on a mazy run and fed Anna McGrath, who finished brilliantly to make the score 73 points to 7. With two minutes left on the clock, GAA convert Shauna Kinsella scored her first try for Naas. McGuire added the conversion once more to make the final score 80 points to 7. 

Naas now have a weekend off before going to Portarlington to play Portdara on the 25th of November 

Naas: 

Katie Halpin, Emma Tully, Malgorzata Korpas, Beverley Mahon, Lauren Bergin, Asta Rowe, Ellen Murray, Ciara Mckeown, Amy McGuire, Cliodhna O’Connor, Sheena Hubbard, Emily Mckeown, Jamie Garland, Zoe Dunbar, Abbie Cleary, Aoife Furlong, Shauna Kinsella, Ciara Finn, Anna McGrath, Rachel Naughton, Emma Kelly