HEATHER IN HEAVEN
Ireland Women 14 Wales 6
HEATHER O’Brien’s try kept Ireland’s hopes of back-to-back Grand Slam titles alive in Ashbourne last night.
Ireland had achieved a record-breaking 59-0 success over Scotland in the same venue a week ago, but right from the word go at Milltown House, it was clear that this was going to be a much tougher assignment.
A bout of indiscipline presented Wales’ Robyn Wilkins with an opportunity to open the scoring from a close-range penalty 17 minutes in.
The Welsh No 13 negotiated the kick perfectly, and following her second successful three-point effort from a similar position eight minutes later, the visitors had developed a six-point lead.
Ireland got back in the game thanks to an expertly-converted place-kick by Niamh Briggs one minute before the interval.
Following a lengthy spell of dominance in the Wales 22, the UL Bohs star added a second routine penalty on 50 minutes, after Lowri Harries had been penalised for a high-tackle.
Pivotal
The pivotal moment of the game arrived just past the hour mark, when O’Brien displayed great initiative to gather the loose possession, before driving over forcefully in the right-corner.
When Briggs superbly split the posts from the 22-metre-line deep into stoppage time, victory was secured.
IRELAND: N Briggs (3 pens); H Casey, L Cantwell, J Murphy, A Miller; N Stapleton, L Muldoon; F Coghlan, SL Kennedy, A Egan; S Spence, ML Reilly; S Fleming, C Molloy, H O’Brien (try).
Replacements: G Bourke for Kennedy (56), A Baxter for Casey (69).