Final Wins For Thurles & Bantry Bay

After a long, hard season, the finals of the Munster Women’s Division 1 Cup and Plate took place last weekend, with two excellent games underpinning what’s been a fantastic year for women’s rugby in the province.

UL Bohemians were capturing the AIL Cup title on the same day as the four teams of Thurles and Shannon in the Cup, and Bantry Bay and Dungarvan-Youghal in the plate, looked to be crowned queens of Munster for 2017.

The Cup final saw the pair face off at Nenagh RFC in what was a very tightly contested final. Shannon opened the scoring after 15 minutes through a try by Aisling Duhig but Thurles would soon strike back with Aisling O’Hagen touching down, converted by Megan Callahan.

Shannon got their second through Lea O’ Dwyer before Munster Women’s out-half Valerie Power added the extras to hand the Limerick club with a 12-7 lead at half time.

Those would be the last Shannon points of the contest however, as the Tipperary side fought their way back. A single try lead was always going to be extremely difficult to defend, and in an attritional battle, it was eventually Nicola Sweeney’s try saw the teams level, before Megan Callahan slotted a fantastic conversion right on the sideline to hand Thurles the lead for the first time in the encounter.

That proved enough, as Thurles held off the Shannon wave and secured yet another title for the Mid-Tipp outfit, who have had a fantastic season in 2017.

In the day’s other final Bantry Bay travelled down the R586 to Bandon in their first ever final, and kept their cool to win the Plate against Youghal/Dungarvan 57-12. This was a first final for the relatively new West Cork side, and hopes in the bay is that this win will provide the impetus for them to carry on.

It was a memorable day in particular for the McCarthy clan, whose Mother and Daughter pairing of Eileen and Elaine bridged the generational gap to win the trophy for their local side.