Brisbane Irish Women’s Tens Competition
Brisbane Irish Womens tens team started their season in wet conditions at Souths Rugby club on Friday 12 Apr. Our ladies have been training for tens and were feeling good prior to Friday nights hit outs against Wests and Souths.
Facing an experienced Wests side for their first game the ladies did well to settle into the game after a quick try by one of the Wests backs.
Initially there was a lot of “deer in the headlights” faces in the Irish Guernsey but, in true Irish style, the ladies started to stand-up and be counted by making some good tackles, and putting together consecutive sets of recycled ball.
Wests were too strong scoring multiple times but newcomer Kate Plimmer crossed the line for the Irish to score their only try of the evening.
It was much of the same in the game against Souths, playing sevens due to Souths not having enough players. It was clear that the Irish women had been focussed on tens and not sevens, losing to Souths.
The Irish womens team are focused on laying strong foundations throughout the tens campaign and should take away some big positives from stand-out perfomers in flyhalf Claudia Finney and Sonyah Badcock.
Finney who, after being beaten by an opposition player breaking through one of her first tackles of the game, turned and chased down the opposition player with so much determination that she pulled-off a certain try saving tackle! This seemed to set the tone for Finney’s performances in both games, executing a number of solid tackles.
Mobile and dynamic forward Sonya Badcock was at her steam-rolling best, running the ball up at every opportunity that she had. Her clean-outs in the ruck area were devastating and she started her season with a bang!
Young half-back Anna Cryan gained some valuable experience directing the forwards around the paddock and should be commended for also displaying courage when running the ball into some big opposition girls.
Kate Plimmer showed her pace breaking the line on multiple occasions out wide and Megan McAlernon also showed courage by putting her body on the line.
Although the girls lost both games, they went down learning! And all reports were that every player thoroughly enjoyed their first official hit out!
Normanby Cup Round 4: Brisbane Irish vs Ipswich
It was wet and muddy conditions for this tight encounter with arch rivals Ipswich Rangers at home last Friday night. Both sides were very physical upfront and it was a very even contested first half with neither side managing to score any points.
Irish started the better in the second half and had a scrum just inside the Ipswich half where substitute and new recruit Ollie Bastable broke off the back of the scrum and ran 30m to score in the corner to give Irish the lead with 25mins to go. 5-0 to Irish.
Poor discipline from the home side gave the visitors an easy 3 points with 15mins to go. Irish gave away another few penalties away which resulted in a try in the corner to make it 5-8 to Ipswich. Irish pushed hard for the winning score but again, poor discipline let them down. Final score Brisbane Irish 5 Ipswich Rangers 8
3/2/1 points went to:
Coen Romanowski
Bradley Holland
Ollie Bastable.
Next up for the Normanby Cup side is Souths away (26/4/19), 8pm Kick Off
Pegg Cup Round 4: Goodna vs Brisbane Irish
Brisbane Irish 1st grade travelled to Goodna for an early 1.20pm kick off last Saturday.
The Irish were coming off 3/3 winning run and were looking to keep that momentum going.
Goodna started the better with some physical runs and dominated the scrum the home side ran in for an early score and converted, 7-0 to Goodna.
This was a very physical first half and, with the Goodna pack overpowering the Irish in the scrum, they managed to pick and go off the next penalty and get in for another score, 14-0 to Goodna.
The Irish kicked into gear and a well worked try out wide was finished off by flyhalf Braden Lockyer. Converted by Matt Smith. Another try from Brock McGarity has the Irish back in the game.
The second half saw tries from Ryan Smith, Dave Bridgeman, Matty Smith and Bradley Holland earned the Irish another bonus point win with the final score Goodna 14 Brisbane Irish 37
3/2/1 points for the day went to:
Liam Doran
Ryan Smith
Matty Smith.
The club has a week off for the Easter break. Irish 1st Grade are now top of the table on 20 points and take on Ipswich next for a 1st vs 2nd clash.
Up the Irish!
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