AIT Lions 52
IT Sligo 0
Athlone Institute of Technology Lions women’s rugby team roared into league action with a resounding win against IT Sligo at Dubarry Park on Wednesday last.
AIT scored eight tries in the process. Among the try scorers were Rosie Hogan, with three and Claire Moore, Emma Traenor, Natasha Elliot, Giusy Pulieri, and Orla Cawley. Orla kicked six conversions. The foundation for this win was excellent support play and running from deep. The pick of the tries came from Guisy Pulieri when after lovely interchange of passing between about five players, Guisy sliced through the Sligo defence to score. The set pieces were very solid, ball retention was good and most of the passing was accurate. The quality of their lineout ball was good and this helped Marie Flynn, who had an excellent debut at scrum half, to set up the backs where outhalf Orla Cawley had a powerful running game. The only flaw was that the players didn’t realign and get into position quickly enough, but this will come with further training. Natasha Elliot was always prominent at number eight. Rosie Hogan on the wing made several slashing breaks and then was on hand to make some try saving tackles.
Among AIT’s opponents in the colleges’ league are Waterford IT, Cork IT, IT Tralee and NUI, Maynooth. They are also playing in a South/West Development League where they will be playing NUIG, Tuam and Galbally.
The Lions squad is as follows: Emma Grennan, Amanda Scally, Laura Higgins, Tracy Keenan, Vanessa McDonald, Natasha Elliot, Orla Cawley, Patricia Contreros, Vanessa Keena, Sharon Flaherty, Elaine Brady, Marie Flynn, Rosie Hogan, Stephanie Cullen, Claire Moore (C ), Guisy Pulieri, Emma Traenor, Noelle Gorman, Jen Hayes, and Eimear Raftery.
