It was a historic day in Galway last Saturday when the first ever women’s Rugby League match in Ireland took place at South Park, The Claddagh.
The newly formed Galway Tribeswomen and Dublin City Exiles ladies competed in the inaugural game and the hopes were high from the Galway perspective that they would be able to seal the victory.
The Exiles kicked off with Tribeswomen receiving the ball deep in their own half, and they made good progress completing their first set. Strong running by loose forward ‘Paris’ Louise Kelly set a platform for Scrum half Ella Synott to place a kick down the right-hand side of the pitch. However, the Exiles collected the ball inside their own 30 metre line and launched a counter attack orchestrated by standoff Syphonia Pua, the move ended up with a try from centre Stephanie Carroll which was converted by Emma Curren.
The Exiles, who had a number of experienced rugby union players in their rank, continued with the pressure and had quickly doubled the score a few minutes later with the same combination of try scorer and kick taker.
The Tribeswomen dug deep and defended resolutely, with front rowers Elaine Johnson and Tara Leslie putting in some big hits, and for a period of time they were able to hold the line. However, their ranks were breached again and the Exiles registered another score, this time from scrum half Alex McGuinness.
The Galway women constructed quite a few opportunities and came close to scoring with a strong run by winger Julie Floretino but tough defending by the Dublin team prevented the Tribeswomen from converting any opportunities. The well-polished Exiles began to monopolize more chances and registered another few scores and the 1st half finished at 0-34.
The Tribeswomen kicked off to resume the game and some strong defending disallowed the Exiles from capitalizing on the possession they had. Unfortunately, the combination of Pua and Carroll proved too hard to contain down the left-hand channel and they could not stop the no. 3 from crossing the white wash several more times.
Whilst it was a difficult day for a first outing, the Galway team at times showed great resolve and tenacity in defence and good organisational skills going forward. The ladies will regroup and will be much stronger proposition when they face the Athboy ladies in a couple of weeks’ time.
