In a change to the previous format where the team that topped the table after three rounds were crowned as champions, there are two additional games for the provinces in the early stages of the 2019/20 season.

Having finished runners-up to defending champions Leinster in the round-robin phase, Considine and her Munster team-mates will now face Connacht in a semi-final showdown at Templeville Road this afternoon (kick-off 1.30pm).

Should they overcome the westerners’ challenge, they will face the winners of the second semi-final between Leinster and Ulster. As well as the title decider at Energia Park next Saturday (kick-off 7pm), there will be a 3rd-4th place play-off at the same venue on finals day (kick-off 5pm).

“It’d be done at this stage usually, the weekend before last would have been our last game usually,” explained Considine. “It’s great. It’s basically like another Six Nations. It’s great to have those extra two games. It meant we got to have a lot of squad rotation.

“It meant girls played in positions they wouldn’t usually play. Obviously we went out to win those games, but it was good that everyone did get a chance to show what they were made off and to put their hands up for selection for a semi-final and a final spot.”

It promises to be a busy afternoon for two of Munster’s senior stars, who will attempt to perform a juggling act at the home of St Mary’s College RFC. In addition to being a key figure amongst the senior side’s replacements, former Ireland international Fiona Hayes is head coach of the province’s U18s.

They will be pitted against familiar foes Leinster in their own Interprovincial semi-final at the same venue (2.45pm), with the Ulster and Connacht youths acting as a curtain-raiser to an exciting festival of rugby.

Hayes has been joined on an all-female coaching tickets for the U18s by Ireland captains past and present. Niamh Briggs (who misses today’s game through injury) is on board as a Technical Skills Coach, while Ciara Griffin is offering her expertise in the strength and conditioning department.

Likewise, the Munster senior backroom team is exclusively female as Helen Brosnan, Maeve D’Arcy, Lorna Barry and Kathryn Fahy provide support to Laura Guest in her second season at the helm.

Rather than viewing it is a radical step, Considine feels this is part of a natural evolution within women’s sport.

“You don’t even realise it until it was pointed out, that it’s an all-female team. That’s the stage we’ve got to in women’s sports, that you don’t even realise that you’ve got a woman manager or that you have a woman as your S&C coach. It’s absolutely normal and it’s great that we have got to that stage.

“The girls, Hayes, Junior [Griffin] and Briggs will probably be stressing after the first game. It’s difficult enough and I don’t think people will appreciate just how difficult it is to be able to change from a coaching role into a playing role and trying to remember your own roles in the job as well.

“You might be losing or winning in your U18s game and you’ve to go and totally clear your head of all that stuff and focus on the game again. It’s hard, but the girls are so lucky to have role models like them coaching. The girls they could be potentially playing with in the next few years as well.”

Since making her debut in a 2017 Six Nations victory over Scotland, Considine established herself as a regular starter in the Ireland 15s squad. Despite taking a year-long sabbatical following the completion of that year’s Rugby World Cup, she returned to the fold ahead of last year’s November internationals and hasn’t looked back since.

She has amassed four tries in her last seven appearances for Ireland, but it has been a frustrating period overall for Adam Griggs’ outfit. They emerged with a solitary triumph in this year’s Six Nations and, thanks to a eighth-place finish at the 2017 World Cup on home soil, they will embark on a European Repechage Tournament in a bid to qualify for the next finals in two years’ time.

The precise date and opposition for those games is yet to be determined, but they have been incorporated into a 13-month integrated season plan that was recently unveiled by the IRFU. This will include a number of summer training camps in advance of those crucial qualification encounters, which is something that Considine heavily endorses.

“It’s time that we moved with the times. Having all these games is great. Having our Novembers in the calendar is a great run-up going into the Six Nations. Having our scheduled training camps next summer means that the focus is on qualifying for that World Cup.

“It gives us time to prep for it as a squad, because you are chasing yourself when others are training. Having those training camps in the lead-up is going to be a really, really good building block to qualify for the World Cup.”

As the only All-Ireland League club in the province, UL Bohemians has a heavy representation in the Munster squad. Nevertheless, players from the likes of Thurles, Ballincollig and Fethard & District have progressed through the ranks in 2019.

This is another step in the right direction for the game down south and even though they continue to plow a lone furrow at the top level, Considine expects new challengers to eventually emerge.

“Obviously as the only AIL club in Munster, it [UL] is going to have a significant amount of players on the Munster squad. But it is great to see those other clubs coming through. We played Thurles in that Munster final this year and that was great to see them. They are building and there are other clubs like that building.

“We do need more than one AIL club in Munster. I’m lucky to play with Bohs and have such a great team, and have so many people around us that are at the level that they can play with Munster. The underage clubs are getting there. There is lots of underage clubs, it’s just having to start somewhere and they started from the bottom up.

“In two, three, four years they will have senior clubs. They will be coming up the ranks in the divisions, putting it up against Bohs at some stage in the future.”

Additionally, the Munster set-up also includes a number of players who are attached to clubs in Dublin. This includes inside centre Ciara Scanlan, who will be lining out on her home turf later today.

Considine is also based in the capital, as a primary school teacher at St Mary’s Holy Faith Convent School in Glasnevin. Despite facing a long trek for training and matches, she won’t be contemplating a switch at either club or provincial grade any time soon.

“There’s about seven or eight of us who drive up and down to Limerick. It makes the journey shorter. It doesn’t make it any easier, but it makes it a little more enjoyable anyway. You don’t mind doing it. You never want to play for any other province if you’re from Munster.

“It’s just that pride in the jersey and you grow up supporting Munster rugby. It’s worth it in the end and hopefully it will be worth it at the end of the interpros,” Considine added.

In a change to the previous round-robin format where the team that topped the table after three rounds of fixtures won the title, two weekends of play-offs have been introduced for this season’s Women’s Interpros.

Following the 1.30pm semi-final showdown between Munster and Connacht at Templeville Road tomorrow afternoon, defending champions Leinster square off with their northern counterparts at the same venue at 3.45pm.

The Ulster Women have struggled to make a lasting impact in recent campaigns and suffered a 24-5 defeat to the holders in their previous meeting in Armagh last month. However, Leinster centre Claffey feels that the final scoreline was not a true reflection of the game.

“Against Ulster the last day, it was a very physical game. It was a very up-front battle. They’re very good at the breakdown. They will turn us over if we’re complacent around that time, but Ulster are obviously building as well,” she acknowledged.

“We need to get our set piece right. I think that’s one area we’ll need to work on for this coming weekend. I think it’s a very different pack versus our Leinster pack. It’s just the physicality. We need to bring it to them up front. Technically, we need to be better. We also need to be smarter around the pitch too.

“They only lost their last game by one point against Connacht (20-19). It wasn’t a whitewash or anything like that. They put it up to Connacht. It was a very close game at the end.”

While Claffey and a host of familiar faces are back in the fold, there has been considerable growth in the Leinster squad over the past twelve months. When head coach Ben Armstrong unveiled his selection for the tournament at the beginning of August, it featured several uncapped players.

Included among the new crop are Ireland-capped duo Elaine Anthony and Larissa Muldoon, who have previous experience in the competition with Munster and Ulster respectively. Additionally, Grace Miller, the younger sister of Grand Slam winner Alison, has linked up with Claffey in midfield while captain Sene Naoupu was deployed at out-half.

Rather than sticking with last year’s tried and trusted line-up, the Offaly native believes it is important to integrate fresh faces into the Leinster Women’s programme and continue to build depth and build for the future.

“We’ve got a load of new girls this year. I think the transition from last year’s squad to this year’s squad, it’s probably about 50-50. The girls that have come in, they’ve played AIL. They’ve played international rugby. Either Sevens and 15s, in some cases.

“They’ve added to the team and that’s what we need. Different ideas, different thoughts. I think it’s really good and we’ve got young players coming through as well, which is nice, and different ranges of clubs as well. It’s been really good.”

Given they were always going to be guaranteed a spot at the semi-final stage – the group standings merely determined the make-up of the last-four – Armstrong and his coaching team were able to rotate the Blues squad during the initial rounds of the Championship.

The extended provincial season has allowed the Australian to explore the options within the camp, which Claffey, the Blackrock captain, hopes can ultimately feed into the international set-up.

“It’s a different mindset, but we knew from the very start it was a different mindset. We can try different combinations, different players, different positions and let people play. That’s the most important thing. There’s no point training all summer and not playing.

“It was quite nice to get people involved, get people playing. Get more caps on, because that’s what we need for progression into Ireland is to play. It’s different, but I think every team has learnt differently from it.”

In recent times, a succession of nail-biting encounters has significantly enhanced the already intense rivalry that exists between Leinster and Munster. After the Blues had been knocked off their perch in 2017, they bounced back to reclaim the Interprovincial crown at Energia Park the following September.

Despite finishing level on points in the final table, a 14-all draw with Munster was enough to give Leinster the 2018 title on scoring difference. The provinces recently met at Irish Independent Park where Armstrong’s charges emerged as 20-13 winners.

Should they come through their respective semi-finals tomorrow at St. Mary’s College RFC, the familiar foes will face off in next week’s final in Donnybrook. Although their clash down in Cork did not hold the same significance as it had in previous years, Claffey made sure to cherish a moment that can be all too rare in modern sport.

“There’s quite a large rivalry. Even that last game, it was probably the most nervous I’d been for any game. I wanted to play well. Sometimes you don’t win that many matches in your playing career! You have to enjoy winning each game. You have to learn from the losses. I celebrated that win, as in I was happy.

“I’m not usually very happy after games are over and we’ve won, but I think it was a really good team effort. I enjoyed that game a lot. I think it’s important as a team to celebrate wins, but we have to get to a final or a 3rd-4th place play-off to play them again. We’ll see what happens there. Like I said, Ulster first. I don’t know what’s going to happen there.”

Working in tandem with head coach Neill Alcorn, Suffern is plotting the downfall of defending champions Leinster in tomorrow’s second semi-final at Templeville Road (kick-off 3.45pm) as the Championship reaches the newly-introduced play-off stages.

Speaking ahead of the last-four showdown in Dublin, Ulster captain Cregan said: “Since Derek Suffern has come in, there has been such a drastic change over the last three years. Even in terms of our training and things, it has just become a lot more professional within the set-up.

“It has even stepped up way more this year and the expectations that has probably been placed on the girls. Previously, we just kinda made the transition from club to province and if you went elsewhere, then you had that step up. Whereas now we definitely have a step up from club to dealing with Interpros.”

Without an Interprovincial victory since 2012, Ulster lost a tight contest to Connacht at Queen’s University most recently, going down 20-19 in the final round of the round-robin phase. Back rower Cregan believes they are getting closer to achieving better results.

“The girls were very unlucky that day. There were a few things we should have controlled that we didn’t control. We went into half-time in the lead. Came out and fell asleep for 10 minutes and Connacht scored 10 points. We should have scored earlier in response and we didn’t.

“Connacht, fair play to them, their defence really stepped up in the second half. We scored – in what we didn’t know was going to be the last play of the game – to bring it to one point. We thought we had time to go back down the pitch for the three points.”

The decision to extend the provincial season – and gather all four provinces together for a festival of rugby on semi-finals day at St. Mary’s College RFC – was taken with a view to increasing the profile of the Women’s game in Ireland. The following Saturday (September 21) will see the senior finals held at Energia Park and the Under-18 deciders at MU Barnhall RFC.

From Cregan’s point of view, the link-up between the senior and underage sides, with a number of double-headers taking place in recent weeks, has been of significant benefit to the game in the north.

“Having the semi-finals and finals played together, and having the U-18s and Women’s matches on the same days has definitely promoted it. We go to our U-18 matches as long as we can, obviously until we’re into warm-up stuff. Then the U-18s will stay after the match to watch us. You’re getting rugby players and rugby fans to watch more of the matches.”

Whereas Galwegians and UL Bohemians are the sole representatives of Connacht and Munster in the Energia Women’s All-Ireland League, Malone’s promotion has ensured that the province of Ulster will have two teams at the top level of Women’s club rugby for the forthcoming 2019/20 campaign.

Cregan has already been operating in the AIL with Belfast outfit Cooke, who finished fifth in the table last season and won the All-Ireland Shield title. The versatile forward regards this as another positive step and also sees great encouragement in the work being done by Virginia and Enniskillen in the youth ranks. 

“There’s now two (Ulster) clubs in the All-Ireland League. Underneath that, there’s around eight teams playing in the Ulster Division One and there’s teams in lower grades. Virginia are very strong. They’ve moved now this year, they’re in Leinster.

“They get more games, because most of our U-18 teams are still being set-up. The likes of Virginia and Enniskillen have been predominantly where U-18s have come from. They’ve got a really good, strong base. It’s just trying to make sure those girls stay in club rugby and even if they can get to play club rugby with a senior team around that area.”

While the future of the Women’s game in Ulster is seemingly in capable hands, it is up to Cregan and her team-mates to control the here and now. They got a taste of what Leinster are made of when the sides faced each other at City of Armagh RFC in the second round last month.

That clash ended in a 24-5 win for the visitors, who eventually pulled away after encountering significant resistance from Suffern’s charges. The loss of Claire McLaughlin to ankle surgery has hampered Ulster’s chances, but the emergence of new international players such as 15s scrum half Kathryn Dane and Lucinda Kinghan, in the Sevens game, is certainly a bonus for the province.

“I know Leinster did haul in all the changes when they came up to play us, but it was a very tight match,” admitted Cregan. “They pulled away in the last-third, but it was nothing that we were scared of. Whenever we went back to the video review and looked back at the match, we said to ourselves if we had any of the teams again we would have been comfortable enough to go back at it.

“There’s nothing they did that we couldn’t have a response to. Our mistakes were small scale errors and not big, collective team system errors. It’s a really good place for us to be in.”