![\"Birds](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/5182636_4_articleinline_95420_3016121.jpg\" "\\"Birds")
Birds fly over Wales\u2019 Emily James as she tees off on the 6th. Pic: \u00a9INPHO\/Dan Clohessy.<\/p>\nIreland Women\u2019s Captain Gillian O\u2019Leary believes the blend between youth and experience has been crucial as the Irish began the R&A Home Internationals with a win over Wales.<\/p>\n
The Men\u2019s and Women\u2019s Home Internationals began at Woodbrook on Wednesday with Ireland defeating Wales 12.5-8.5 in the overall match, while England got the better of Scotland on a 13.5-7.5 scoreline.<\/p>\n
And it was a brilliant start to the week for O\u2019Leary\u2019s defending champions, who won eight of the nine points on offer including all three of the morning foursomes, on their way to an 8-1 win.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey did great. It wasn\u2019t an easy day at all, a lot of blustery wind out there so they really just stuck to what they were trying to do which was commit to all of their shots and accept whatever happened after that,\u201d said O\u2019Leary.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe message was focus for each shot but then also enjoy themselves out there and embrace being at home and the support that was there as well. They really enjoyed the day out on course.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are a super bunch, they all know what they are doing and they get on really well together. They are really supportive and encouraging of each other and they are all really good peers.<\/p>\n
\u201cExperience and a great team environment goes a long way in a week like this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Birds fly over Wales\u2019 Emily James as she tees off on the 6th. Pic: \u00a9INPHO\/Dan Clohessy.<\/p>\n
Ireland held a 4.5-2.5 overall lead heading into the afternoon singles.<\/p>\n
Katie Poots and Kate Dillon were first on the scoreboard, with a 4&3 win over Emily Jones and Harriet Lockley. Rebekah Gardner and Olivia Costello quickly followed up with an emphatic 6&5 win. Emma Flemming and Anna Abom were also victorious.<\/p>\n
John Doyle and David Kitt combined for a 3&1 win over Bryn Thomas and Alex James. Gerard Dunne and Dylan Keating suffered a narrow defeat but Keith Egan and Fionn Dobbin salvaged another half point.<\/p>\n
The Irish women put up another resounding display in the afternoon with Dillon\u2019s fabulous 5&4 success, quickly followed up by Poots (3&2). They were further wins for Gardner (5&3), Jessica Ross and Costello.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Damien Coyne\u2019s charges came up short despite a sensational 7&6 win for Keating. Gavin O\u2019Neill also won his match 3&2 but Ireland fell to defeat in the men\u2019s tie.<\/p>\n
In the other match, England started strong and held a 6-1 lead after the morning foursomes. Harley Smith and Lewy Hayward claimed a big 7&6 win to set them on their way.<\/p>\n
Patience Rhodes, Lily Hirst and Lauren Crump all pulled off wins in the afternoon singles for the English women with Andrew Davidson, George Cannon and Chris Somers providing the resistance for the Scottish men. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland Women\u2019s Captain Gillian O\u2019Leary believes the blend between youth and experience has been crucial as the Irish…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":584364,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-584363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584363","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=584363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584363\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/584364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=584363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=584363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=584363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}