A spirited display from Dublin University Football Club (DUFC) Women’s Sevens team in the final of the Irish Rugby Football Union Third-Level Freshers Festival fell just short of being enough to claim the spoils in the half-pitch competition hosted by University College Dublin (UCD). Instead, an imperious UCD team took victory and the bragging rights on this occasion, despite the best efforts of a tiring Trinity side, which played a fantastic brand of high-scoring rugby throughout the tournament.
The group stage matches proved to be a fertile hunting ground for a physical Trinity line-up, with Síofra McGuinness and Betty Bouquet in particular imposing themselves well in contact throughout the opening fixtures. The team hit the ground running with an efficient and well-managed win over Dublin City University (DCU), with team captain Susanna Mullen marshalling her teammates well to overcome any opening-game stage fright on the way to picking up a 4-2 victory over the North Dublin side.
Following on from the tournament opener, the tough task of competing with the all-conquering UCD side was next on the agenda for the Trinity women. An uncharacteristically slow start left DUFC with a mountain to climb early on. The UCD side, to its credit, showed both power and pace with ball in hand, reaping the rewards of early dominance to open up a five tries gap. Trinity’s heart and resilience eventually paid dividends towards the end of the game, but it wasn’t quite enough, with the final score reading 5-2 in favour of the UCD women.
Eager to instantly bounce back, the DUFC side unleashed its frustration on a Queen’s University Belfast team which sank to a 5-0 defeat after finding itself on the receiving end of dominant Trinity performance. Not long after Trinity’s representatives made it two comprehensive wins from two over Ulster opposition, dispatching a University of Ulster Jordanstown team with relative ease. The superb Becky Sutherland marked her debut for Trinity with a fantastic individual try as the team soared in confidence while marching to a 4-0 win.
Coming into the final on a streak of two clean sheets, DUFC would have had high hopes of improving its record against arch-rivals UCD. It wasn’t to be however, with the final game of the tournament going much the same as the teams’ previous encounter, despite the best efforts of Anna Grace, who made a magnificent break to stretch the UCD defence midway through the game. In the end, tiredness was certainly a factor as Trinity were helpless to prevent numerous clean line breaks from a UCD side that continued to excite with the ball in hand as the team powered to a deserved 5-2 victory.
With the silverware on this occasion heading further south of the Liffey than DUFC had hoped, Trinity’s players will be eager to set the record straight on Friday night when they take on Arklow in the regular league campaign.
