MICHELLE CLAFFEY’S TRY with less than 15 minutes remaining proved decisive as Leinster squeezed past Connacht in their Vodafone Women’s Interprovincial Series opener at the Sportsground.
On a sun-drenched Saturday afternoon in Galway, the women in blue earned a 17-12 win despite a strong start by Connacht, whose early pressure yielded a try for Meadbh Scally.
Leinster replied through Jennie Finlay who applied the finishing touch as Leinster exploited an overlap following a goal-line dropout.
Connacht centre Shannon Touhey and Leinster’s Claffey traded wonderful tries late in the first half, each of them picking gaps in the opposition defence before crossing the whitewash.
The second half was more of an arm wrestle in which Leinster had the slight edge and they made it count on 67 minutes when player of the match Claffey again found a hole in the Connacht rearguard to apply the crucial score.
🗣 | ‘It’s so good to be back. I absolutely loved it.’ 💙@VodafoneIreland Player of the Match @MichelleClaffe speaks after the province’s win over Connacht today. 💪🏼
— Leinster Rugby (@leinsterrugby) August 28, 2021
🎥: @SportTG4 #CONvLEI #LeinsterRugby pic.twitter.com/jZpgTq9cyT
Later in the evening, Munster prop Chloe Pearse scored three of her side’s eight tries as they thrashed Ulster 50-5 at Kingspan Stadium in Belfast.
Siobhán McCarthy, Muirne Wall, Chisom Ugwueru, Nicole Cronin and Aoife Moore also dotted down for the southern province, with Beth Cregan’s first-half try for Ulster being their only score of the game.
What a try.#ULSvMUN pic.twitter.com/VqDyeyoV4S
— The Loose Head (@TheLooseH) August 28, 2021
🤩🤩🤩
— Munster Rugby (@Munsterrugby) August 28, 2021
The @VodafoneIreland Player of the Match is Chloe Pearse after a great performance topped off by a hat-trick👏#WomensInterpros #ULSvMUN #SUAF 🔴 pic.twitter.com/gLhsUTO4iY
Ulster will travel to face Leinster at Energia Park, Donnybrook next Saturday while Connacht will make the trip south to Musgrave Park, Cork, to face Munster.
