Kinsale Women on the Up

The recently formed Kinsale Women’s team have come on in leaps and bounds over the last few months, and recently played two full contact games against Tralee and Galbally.

With great anticipation and excitement, the Kinsale women’s rugby team travelled to Tralee for their first full contact match of the season on Saturday. Fielding a brand new team that has been busy training on Monday and Wednesday nights in Snugmore, Kinsale settled into the game with ease and were not intimidated by a strong Tralee team that had 3 of the Kerry Ladies Football team in the squad.

Tralee opened the scoring with a try in the 5th minute but Kinsale returned the score line to a respectable 7 points to 5 in the 10th minute with a try by Aine O’Regan. Kinsale held possession for long periods of time showing that the training on the cold nights in Kinsale was paying off. Although Tralee were surprised by the skill and determination of the Kinsale squad, the added experience of the Tralee pack gradually began to show through. This experience and combined with a higher level of fitness allowed Tralee to get control of the game and ran in some additional scores to take the honours.

For their first game of full contact rugby, the Kinsale squad can hold their heads up high as they represented Kinsale in an excellent manner. There’s no better way to learn than playing the game and a lot of lessons were learned in Tralee. Immediately after the post match “speech” by Coach Danny O’Connell, there was a unanimous request for a return to training on Monday night – St. Patrick’s night. This shows the enthusiasm and dedication that this newly formed team has developed already. It bodes well for the remainder of the season and also for a storming of the Women’s Division 3 League next season. Some more upcoming potential matches against Galbally of Limerick and a blitz in April at Young Munster will warm up the team in advance of their first ever entrance into the famous Kinsale 7s tournament in May.

The Kinsale squad to travel to Tralee was as follows: Jacqui O’Connell, Amy Guerin, Grainne Toomey, Nikita O’Connell, Gillian O’Donovan, Siobhain Devlin, Aine O’Regan, Melanie Hunt, Marian Gabriel and Coach Danny O’Connell

Finally, as always, we need to build on the squad we have now and would welcome new players even at this stage of the season. Give Danny a call on 0876534987. Come on Kinsale!!!

Kinsale (33) – Galbally (37)
22nd March 2008
Kinsale Women’s Rugby team got off to a flying start in Snugmore-Kinsale on a windy and chilly but fine day last Saturday.
Within a few minutes, the local crowd was treated to a well taken individual try by Kinsale out half Aine O’Regan. The try was then converted by 1st Centre Jacqui Dalton.
Galbally however, kept their cool and soon responded with a try of their own and duly converted it to tie up the scores again.
The Kinsale pack consisting of Grainne Toomey, Nikita O’Connell, Sylvia O’Sullivan, Jacqui O’Connell and Gillian O’Donovan won some excellent line out ball in the windy conditions and kept control for long periods of the game.
Although Aine O’Regan ran in 3 more tries for the home squad, Galbally had no intention of giving up and kept in touch throughout with some great scores.
Some excellent ball handling from the half backs of Siobhan Devlin and Aine O’Regan and the 2 centres Jacqui Dalton and Mel Hunt kept the pressure on the Galbally back line. The ball handling skills were tested with the windy conditions and Kinsale kept the ball moving well up the field with Mel Hunt going over for her 1st try in a Kinsale jersey late in the game. Many more tries are expected from Mel!!
Eoin O’Callaghan did an excellent job as referee having been drafted in at the last minute by Kinsale coach Danny O’Connell.
Aine O’Regan took the woman of the match title running in a total of 4 tries. Jacqui Dalton converted 4. Galbally however, took the honours with a late score to bring their tally of 7 tries and 1 conversion to end the game with Kinsale 33 Galbally 37.
Training continues on Monday and Wednesday nights at Snugmore at 7.30 with Danielle Kiely and Pat O’Regan. New members are always welcome and we always cover the basics in a way to introduce the new player to the game at a pace they can handle. For further information call Danny at 0876534987 – Come on Kinsale!!