Rugby Scotland v Ireland Women’s Rugby

Facing the team that recently beat England and Wales, and with only one win in the past three years, it was looking to be an uphill task for the Scots side at sunny, but chilly, Lasswade.

Still, the home side started well and kept the Irish more or less confined to their own territory for large parts of the first half, going ahead with a penalty from Lisa Richie early on. It took the eventual Triple Crown winning (hope that doesn’t give too much away!) side 21 minutes to draw level with their own penalty from Niamh Briggs. Doing their utmost to keep the Irish pinned back again, a gap in the defence saw a quick break from the visitors come up trumps with their opening try from  Alison Miller, but the kick was missed and Ireland were 8-3 ahead. With Ireland keeping the game on the boil, Scotland kept them out with some dogged defence and stopped the visitors having it all their own way. The half ended with Scotland encamped on the Irish 5-metre line, but a fumble gave the ball back to the visitors who seemed only too glad to kick the ball into touch to end the half.

The first fifteen minutes of the second half were all Scotland, with Ireland looking decidedly shaky at times. However a series of penalty give-away’s lead to the referee handing out a yellow to Tanya Griffith for handling in a ruck. That was all the encouragement the Irish women needed and they piled on the points during the yellow-card period to see themselves 18-3 ahead.

They were clearly in the ascendancy now and, in spite of a mass substitution by the home side, another two tries and a conversion took Ireland’s eventual winning score to 30-3.

An apparently easy win for Ireland was tempered by the fight the Scotland side put up for the first 50-odd minutes, and it was possibly the carding of Griffith, that gave them the foothold they needed to turn up the gas. Despite the scoreline, some fine performances from the likes of Megan Gaffney (top picture), in her first season of full Internationals, should mean that the Scottish team can take a whole lot of good from the match forward to their next encounter against Wales in Glasgow.

Report and Photo – John Preece