The Ireland Women’s Rugby Team fell to a second defeat in the Guinness Six Nations but came within one pass of pulling off a dramatic comeback against Italy.

The game, on Easter Sunday, was played in front of a record home crowd of 6,605 at the RDS.

A late Katie Corrigan try, a won penalty and a kick to the corner set up a helter skelter last phase of play that got Ireland to within a metre of the line for a try that would have set up a game winning conversion but a strip tackle put an end to the hopes, if not the hope that things are getting better.

Finishing third in the table would have secured a guaranteed place at next year’s World Cup to be held in England and which is likely to transform the game.

That will now likely have to be secured via another more circuitous route but there is a warmer buzz around the team who have now at least scored 38 points in their opening two games, 13 more than in the whole of last year’s campaign.

The remaining two home games are in Cork and Belfast, against Wales and Scotland and the hope is that the momentum in standards and fans will continue.

One group that are more likely than before to attend Belfast at least are the senior and U12 teams from Balbriggan RFC.

Louise McCleery is an account executive on the sports team at Wilson Hartnell and a player at the club. She suggested that it would be a winner to hire a bus into the RDS and for each of the senior team to buddy up with a player from the U12’s sitting beside them on the coach and at the match, building bonds that will last way, way beyond the final whistle.

Sometimes it is the simplest of ideas that can have the greatest impact and it was a great success across the club so well done. That’s living the impact of getting behind the Women’s game in a deep and sustainable fashion.


 

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