Still recovering from defeat in the final of the Division Four League Cup last week, Dublin University Football Club (DUFC) Women took on Navan RFC Ladies in the Paul Cusack Cup in College Park on Sunda in perfect playing conditions. The pitch had benefited from a dry night and was in a surprisingly good state given the late stage of the season. However, following the tense battle last week, DUFC were missing a number of key players, and the match ended up being a 12-on-12 game. Navan started as favourites, as they play in the division above Trinity.
On the dot of 1pm, the match kicked off. In what would become a common recurrence, Trinity’s star flanker and visiting student Silje Tilk claimed the ball from the kick off and proceeded to break Navan’s line, which was slow to move forward. Trinity were awarded a penalty but failed to win their own lineout – a rare mistake for what would become one of their strongest attributes in the match. Tilk managed to steal the ball at the halfway line, and Navan’s defence was put to the test. Unforced errors would be DUFC’s downfall as they knocked on the ball. Furthermore, the scrum became Navan’s main threat, as their pack dominated in terms of both size and technique.
Poor defending cost DUFC, as Navan’s scrumhalf, Martha Bashford, ran across the pitch to go down for the first try of the match after eight minutes. A missed conversion kept the scores tight, though. Following the restart, Navan failed to commit enough numbers to the ruck, and Trinity managed to turn the ball over. Unfortunately, an unforced error, this time a knock on by Imogen Guinness, meant that Navan would have another put in at the scrum. Trinity’s pack was again crushed by the sheer power of Navan, and Ruth Moore ran down the right wing to score a try. DUFC outhalf, Cathy Liney, did well to cover a lot of ground and stop Moore from placing the ball directly under the posts. Thus, Navan missed the conversion and it was 0-10 after 12 minutes.
Niamh O’Kelly-Lynch got the game restarted, and second-row Maura Ford did incredibly well to steal the ball deep in Navan’s 22. Navan were subsequently penalised for not rolling away. DUFC chose against taking the three points right in front of the posts – scrumhalf Dia O’Rourke instead opting for a quick tap and go.
Emulating the maul strategy that has become pivotal to Ireland’s success over the past 18 months, DUFC purposefully created a maul five metres out and drove the opposition backwards, allowing Captain, Molly Boyne, to score DUFC’s first try of the match from the back of the pack. Remarkably, from over 30 metres out and at a difficult angle, O’Kelly-Lynch scored the conversion to put three points between the teams after 16 minutes.
DUFC’s celebrations were cut short, as they were caught napping. Unfortunately, the pressure was too much, and DUFC conceded twice in quick concession, with the game now 7-20 after 25 minutes. Trinity’s line speed had been good, but was disjointed as players were unevenly spread across the pitch. The missing numbers of course exacerbated this problem.
In the final minutes of the first half, DUFC got a second wind, with Tilk breaking a tackle and sidestepping twice with impressive speed. The ball came out quickly from the ruck to O’Kelly-Lynch who also broke the line with a hand off. Unfortunately, DUFC failed to capitalise on the abundance of space on the left wing. This was a repeated issue for DUFC in the first half. They failed to use the overlaps they had, and the copious amount of space on the openside, due to the 12-on-12 nature of the game. The half finished 7-20.
Both sides picked up where they left off in the second. Trinity’s tight head prop, Kerry Ryan, temporarily went off injured, meaning that scrums would now be uncontested, something which was advantageous for DUFC. On top of that, the lineout became pivotal for DUFC in the second half, with the team managing to secure all of their own lineouts largely thanks to Tilk and Guinness. After a series of sharp passes and offloads, O’Kelly-Lynch put the ball down for DUFC’s second try of the game at the 50-minute mark.
This lit a fire under Navan, who responded with a series of darting runs. O’Kelly-Lynch stopped a certain try by smashing Navan’s outhalf into touch at the five-metre line. Unfortunately, Liney was sent to the sin bin after a very high tackle, albeit a try saving one. Navan’s confidence got the better of them, and they chose not to take the three points from the penalty spot. They ended up knocking forward the ball, largely due to a huge hit from Boyne. Eventually though, Navan’s number 12 was able to break the line and score to make it 12-25. An emphatic response by DUFC saw O’Kelly-Lynch score a try, but unfortunately she missed the subsequent conversion, which would have put the teams within a score apart.
In what will surely be remembered as one of the performances of the season, Tilk took the ball from the restart again and managed to break a tackle, with three players needed to bring her down. Immediately back on her feet, she cleared the following ruck in a remarkable display of strength and endurance. Meanwhile, just back on the pitch after her 10 minutes in the sin bin, Liney managed to make amends by scoring a fantastic solo effort at the 70-minute mark. The score now stood at 22-25 with 10 minutes remaining.
Now it was a battle of pure endurance and stamina. DUFC suffered heavily from a lack of fresh legs to bring on from the bench. A penalty try was awarded to Navan for yet another high tackle at 77 minutes played. Navan scored their first conversion of the match, and then Bashford got the final score of the game and her second try with an incisive break. The game ended 22-37 to Navan.
While there were repeated glimpses of skill from O’Kelly-Lynch and Tilk, ultimately the team knows they could have played better against strong opponents. The choice to engage in a forwards battle when there were options to go wide will be lamented upon and hopefully learnt from. The score line doesn’t reflect the perseverance and resilience DUFC showed in the second half. However, given the moments of brilliance seen in this game, a full team would certainly give University College Dublin (UCD) a tightly contested match in their upcoming colours showdown.
DUFC Women will also be hosting tag tournaments over the coming weeks to introduce players to the club and expand the squad’s size for next season.
