The Clovers led early on in both halves, but the Wolfhounds took control during the final half-an-hour to win 50-29 and claim a third straight Celtic Challenge title.<\/p>\n
Neill Alcorn\u2019s side turned their impressive table-topping form into another trophy win in Edinburgh, as they finished the cross-border competition\u2019s inaugural play-offs with a third victory of the season over their Irish rivals.<\/p>\n
Vicky Elmes Kinlan, Linda Djougang, and player-of-the-match Erin King bagged a brace of tries each, while Maeve \u00d3g O\u2019Leary and Caoimhe Molloy came off the Wolfhounds bench to join the list of try scorers.<\/p>\n
This entertaining decider looked like it might go the distance when the wind-backed Clovers led initially through Niamh Murphy, and then had a quick-fire double from impactful replacement Eil\u00eds Cahill to close the gap to 19-17 by half-time.<\/p>\n
Despite losing Alana McInerney and Sadhbh McGrath to injury, as well as having Ailish Quinn sin-binned, Denis Fogarty\u2019s charges remained right in the hunt. They even moved back in front thanks to B\u00e9ibhinn Parsons crossing in the left corner following a strong Quinn run.<\/p>\n
However, three tries in little over 15 minutes saw the Wolfhounds build serious momentum. Following a close-range King effort, the pacy Elmes Kinlan finished off brilliant work from the back-three, and O\u2019Leary surged over from a goalline drop-out.<\/p>\n
King and Molloy clinically contributed closing seven-pointers to make it a 50-22 scoreline, before Parsons \u2013 one of 21 of Ireland\u2019s Guinness Women\u2019s Six Nations squad members on show \u2013 gained some late consolation with a typically rapid run-in from midfield.<\/p>\n
Giving her reaction afterwards, Ireland\u2019s new captain King, who made her comeback from a serious knee injury in January, said: \u201cWhen I got injured (last year), you kind of have to forget how much you love the sport. But rugby gives me so much \u2013 so much purpose and so much joy.<\/p>\n
\u201cGetting to play with this Wolfhounds team was really enjoyable. The rehab was really tough and I did work really hard. I\u2019d imagine days like today, and the fact that it\u2019s happened, it is just so amazing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just so grateful and so lucky every time I get to take the pitch, because it can be taken away from you so quick. I just love it, I love everyone\u2019s company. It\u2019s so exciting, the girls coming through the pathway. It\u2019s such a pleasure to play with them.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n WOLFHOUNDS: Stacey Flood (Leinster); Robyn O\u2019Connor (Leinster), Aoife Dalton (Leinster) (capt), Eve Higgins (Leinster), Vicky Elmes Kinlan (Leinster); Dannah O\u2019Brien (Leinster), Alex Connor (Leinster); Linda Djougang (Leinster), India Daley (Ulster), Sophie Barrett (Ulster), Kate Jordan (Leinster), Naoise Smyth (Leinster), Fiona Tuite (Ulster), Aoife Corcoran (Leinster), Erin King (Leinster).<\/p>\n
\n Replacements: Sarah Delaney (Leinster), Hannah Wilson (Leinster), Caoimhe Molloy (Leinster), Maeve \u00d3g O\u2019Leary (Munster), Regan Casey (IQ Rugby), Jade Gaffney (Leinster), Abby Moyles Ulster), Amy Larn (Leinster).<\/p>\n
\n CLOVERS: Aoife Corey (Munster); Anna McGann (Connacht), Alana McInerney (Munster), Niamh Murphy (Leinster), B\u00e9ibhinn Parsons (Connacht); Enya Breen (Munster), Emily Lane (Munster); Siobh\u00e1n McCarthy (Munster), Emma Dunican (Munster), Sadhbh McGrath (Ulster), Ruth Campbell (Leinster) (capt), Aoibheann McGrath (Munster), Annakate Cournane (Munster), Ailish Quinn (Connacht), Jemima Adams Verling (Connacht).<\/p>\n
\n Replacements: Aoife Fleming (Munster), Gr\u00e1inne Burke (Munster), Eil\u00eds Cahill (Munster), Aoibhe O\u2019Flynn (Munster), Faith Oviawe (Connacht), Katie Whelan (Leinster), Kate Flannery (Munster), Lucia Linn (Munster).<\/p>\n
\n Referee: Jonny Mackenzie (SRU)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Clovers led early on in both halves, but the Wolfhounds took control during the final half-an-hour to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":370520,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-370519","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=370519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370519\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/370520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}