Moving Forward and Making History!
On Tuesday 17th November2015,
nineteen of our girls took a huge step forward in Villiers’ history books being
the first female rugby representatives for the school. Captained by Della
Daly, a travelling senior squad of 15 senior girls and five juniors made their
anticipated debut with a short trip to Limerick Institute of Technology. Here, they
took part in a Development Day run by Munster Rugby which included games along
with skills and drills.
The programme was based on Leprechaun
Rugby, an adapted form of rugby created by the IRFU as an introductory process
to the more commonly known 15 aside full- contact game. This short, 20 minute,
10 aside game involves uncontested set pieces and two handed touch but includes
many aspects of rugby union, such as; general movement, effective attack and solid
defence.
The girls began the day with a game against
St. Anne’s Community College of Killaloe, this close encounter challenged the
girls as they got to put nine weeks of hard work and training to the test. With
a team full of new caps and first-time players, the girls were anxious and
nerves were high. However, we saw a great display of rugby from both teams
involved. Fantastic work rate from players like Olivia Gurnett, Alex Clohessy,
Rachel Hoctor and Rachel Butler made it very difficult for the opposition to make
ground. Huge carries by Laura O’Riordan
and Becky Manifold kept the momentum
in Villiers favour with some very effective evasive attacking lines by Tamsin Harvey, Grace Keely and Katy Reddan.
Tries scored deservedly by Molly Pattison
and Claire Brewitt gave Villiers the
win. Only conceding one try, the girls were happy with their debut lead
excellently by Daly.
Meanwhile, our travelling junior players; Ava O’Connor, Jessica Hickey O’Neill, Siban
Dalton, Aoife Kavanagh and Amy O’ Leary got a chance to play with the two
Junior teams that had made the trip to the event. In a thrilling opener between
St. Annes and St. Mary’s the girls fitted in perfectly making some very
effective line breaks and an all-important try from Jess Hickey O’Neill, her
first every try in her first game of rugby, a huge achievement that she should
be extremely proud of.
After the opening games, the girls were
then put through their paces with some skills and drills by Munster Development Officer Amanda
Greensmith, IRFU Referee Andy Brace and other members of the Munster
Development Team. This was a great way to work on specific aspects of weakness
that had been identified in their games, a lot was learned and taken on board coming
into our final game.
We saw the two sides battle it out once
again and the improvement on both teams was undeniable. The girls had listened,
learned and now got the opportunity to put it into practice. Huge individual performances
resulted in a collective team win that saw inexperienced players step up to the
mark and really impress. This game saw a lot more advancement passed the gain
line and a huge increase in supportive line running, individual line breaks and
movement of the ball to wings. Villiers ran in six tries against St. Annes’
four giving us our second win of the day.
We had decided collectively as a team
before this tournament that we were not here to win or get involved in the
competitive aspects. We were there to learn, develop our skill set and enrich
our understanding of the game. However, this was done so well the wins fell
into place. Huge effort by all involved, we are looking forward to our next
encounter, where we will continue to move forward and make history!
Huge thank you to Eve Meaney and Kennedy
Tabot Ndip for their help on the day, some great photography for
Active Schools!
