Arklow have won the U16 Girls Leinster Plate beating Enniscorthy 20 points to 12 in a hard-fought
final between two very well organised teams. The match was played at pace right from the kick off.
Arklow moved the ball early and would have broken through if it wasn’t for a tremendous tackle by
Alex Bowe on Molly O’Leary. Enniscorthy started really well and attacked off a line out, secured by
Laura O’Brien. Jenny Nolan the out half made a fantastic break and almost scored in the right corner
the ball was recycled and the pacy Aimee Bowe finished in the left corner. Lucy Mc Cormack added
an excellent conversion. Arklow responded applying pressure throughout the half with hard carries
and their excellent 10, Sophia White showed great variation in kicking and distribution. Alanna
Kavanagh the ‘Scorthy 15 had to deal with a lot of deep kicks and defended well. The Arklow line out
was very efficient and provided the basis for Arklow to scored 2 well worked tries and Sophia White
added one conversion to lead 12 points to 7 at half time. The Arklow 15, Perl Tyner made a big
impact on the game and was very difficult to contain.
Arklow continued their pressure after the break and were held up a number of times before finally
scoring a 3rd try making it 17 to 7. Enniscorthy dug deep and took the fight back to Arklow and
dominated the last quarter. Emily Murphy & Lucy Mc Cormack (Centres) gained ground and the
number 8 Blathnaid Cullen made some big carries. Bobbi Cahill the Enniscorthy 7 worked very hard
all game helped recycle ball. In an attack after a number of phases through the tireless 9 Aoife
O’Connor, Bobbi Cahill burst through a number of Arklow players to score in the left corner. The
conversion hit the post leaving it 17 to 12. Arklow restarted and after a number of phases Jenny
Nolan put in an excellent long rage cross kick chased by Alanna Kavanagh and Aimee Bowe. Aimee
almost scored in the corner but was called back for a forward pass. Arklow composed themselves
and with time running got a long range penalty, the Arklow 10 calmly put the penalty over to finish
the game 20 to 12.
Enniscorthy Team: Saoirse Fortune, Sarah Kennedy (Captain) Sofia Furlong, Laura O’Brien Niamh
Nolan, Katie Doran, Bobbi Cahill, Blathnaid Cullen, Aoife O’Connor, Jenny Nolan, Aimee Bowe, Emily
Murphy, Lucy Mc Cormack, Alex Bowe, Alanna Kavanagh, Emelia Byrne, Eileen Cole, Eva Wiltshire,
Shara Dragun, Alex Costen.
The Enniscorthy RFC Youth Awards and Celebration Night will take place in the clubhouse on Friday, 17th May at 7pm.
