Hockey/Women's Interprovincials: Leinster retained the senior Interprovincial title at Grange Road yesterday, beating Ulster 3-1 in a head-to-head for the title.
The victory represents their third success over the past four seasons and one which will rank as one of the best finales to this annual event.
Leinster's opening 3-3 draw with Munster on Friday night, followed by their 3-0 win over Connacht on Saturday, left them back in the frame as Ulster could only follow up their 7-0 win over Connacht with a goalless draw against Munster on Saturday, leaving all three provinces in contention going into yesterday's finish.
With Connacht pushing Munster out of the picture by scoring a 1-0 win yesterday morning, it all came down to the afternoon clash, with Leinster requiring outright victory and Ulster, with the better goal difference, just a draw to finish on top.
It got off to an explosive start with Leinster scoring with little over a minute's play elapsed. A lightening attack which saw the ball swung from one wing to the other and back from a telling pass from Anya Bowers on the right was tailor-made for Jenny Burke to sweep the ball past Angela Platt.
Burke had the ball in the net with 10 minutes gone, but after the two umpires conferred the goal was ruled out for an infringement.
It was at this stage that Ulster took up the offensive, with captain Lynsey McVicker and her attacking partners Nikki McCaughern and Suzanne Beaney working overtime to keep the Leinster rearguard of Ciara O'Brien, Linda O'Neill and Nikki Symmons fully occupied.
The pressure threw up some mistakes at the back for Leinster, but the one that counted against them was Linda Caulfield's on 16 minutes which allowed McVicker to break free and she finished it off by blasting a rising shot past Mary Goode to level the scoring.
It was somewhat against the run of play that Caulfield won a second short corner for Leinster three minutes from the break, and again it was sharpshooter Burke who grabbed the chance to restore the lead.
Ulster's first half purple patch of all out attacking was replaced in the second half by a far better and balanced Leinster performance. Up front Leinster carried more all round attacking strength with Cathy McKean, Trish Conway and Anya Bowers co-ordinating, backed up by the probings of Caulfield and Burke.
However, as the half wore on Ulster's pursuit of a 2-2 finish was their focus and they came close on a few occasions to pulling it off twice through the efforts of McVicker and Hannah Bowe which were thwarted by Goode and by defenders O'Brien and O'Neill who had an outstanding game at the back.
But Leinster produced the move of the match three minutes from the end for goal number three. i It involved Keane, Caulfield, Zanya Dahl and Burke who made the final pass for Conway to seal the issue.
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