AFTER the men's victory on Saturday hopes of making it a historic double were high when the women played their Triple Crown match against Wales at Anglesea Road, Dublin, yesterday.
From the start, the home side was on the attack, forcing the Welsh into expensive mistakes. Captain Aoife Rodgers was moving up from her outside-half position and, with explosive scrum-half Raeltine Shrieves, was exploiting poor Welsh passing and defence.
But the Welsh still looked dangerous on the break, and a scissors move close to halfway after 19 minutes set up centre Louise Rickard for a runaway try on the left wing to open the day's scoring.
Ireland's best chance of the half came minutes later when, after a scrum, Shrieves kicked and swerved first to the left and then to the right, before being brought to ground inches from the line. A penalty kick a few minutes later was scarcely compensation, but when Shrieves slotted away a second just before half-time, the Irish had forged a narrow lead.
It did not last. The Welsh, not surprisingly, went on the attack from the re-start and Non Evans' try from poor Irish line out work after five minutes came as no surprise. It still took another 20 minutes before lock forward April Dent crashed over for the third Welsh try, this one converted by Amanda Bennet.
The Irish had another purple patch late in the game when Shrives again broke away. Unfortunately she had no support when a Welsh defender stopped her by grabbing her ponytail. A second try for Rickard at the whistle completed the Welsh scoring.
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