Munster implosion hands title to Leinster

Having watched their own title hopes go up in smoke when lster trounced Connacht 7-2 in the morning, Munster pressed the self-destruct button in their final clash against Leinster, losing 6-1 to ensure the trophy will reside in Dublin for the next 12 months. Shirley McCay’s hat-trick and a Michelle Harvey brace had helped Ulster do their utmost to chalk up their third title on the bounce, laying down the gauntlet to a Leinster side who needed to to put three goals between themselves and Munster to take the title on goal difference. But the blues’  sextet of pacy, skilful forwards ensured they had little difficulty in seeing off the deflated home side, bagging killer strikes either side of half-time as Munster struggled to shake off the effects of the previous day’s exercions against Ulster. The hosts nonetheless started the brighter, with Jen O’Loughlin centring for Julia O’Halloran to fire a first-time effort wide, while Leinster keeper Mary Goode was at her best to save a point-blank volleyed effort from Áine Connery. But two goals inside 60 seconds on the 23-minute mark swung the tie in Leinster’s favour. Anna O’Flanagan scrambled the ball home off a corner breakdown, while Cathy McKean dived in to direct Nikki Symmons’ crash not long after to hand Leinster the initiative.

When Goode again thwarted Connery from a mid-air strike after Michaela Mihailou had shredded the Leinster cover, it seemed like it wasn’t going to be Munster’s day, and Leinster’s fluky third goal just before the break confirmed that. Isobel Joyce knocked a speculative free towards the circle which Cliodhna Sargent seemed set to intercept, but the bouncy Garryduff pitch – which all teams struggled to come to terms with this weekend – foiled her. Róisín Flinn stuck out a stick in hope more than anything else, and the bounce of the ball seemed to also fool Munster netminder Ciara Ronan, who watched in horror as it bounded into the corner of the goal. Munster’s day got worse when Sinéad Connery was inexplicably yellow-carded when a free-hit decision looked set to go her way, and when McKean lashed in the fourth on her reverse on 45 minutes, the trophy was well and truly on its way east. McKean then turned provider for Lisa Jacob, getting in around the back to present the UCD forward with the simplest of finishes on 50 minutes.

While Munster were being torn asunder at the rear, their forwards still showed sparks of life, with Sinéad Connery unlucky not to connect with an O’Halloran cross, while O’Loughlin was illegally blocked when attempting to volley home. Deirdre Casey thumped home from the resultant short corner – cleverly improvising after the push-out was inaccurate – to restore some pride for Munster, and she had the ball in the net a second time only to be foiled by a whiste in the build-up. Jacob and Jean McDonnell then rubbed salt in the wound, linking up again at the other end on 66 minutes, with the latter batting home after Jacob had neatly flicked the ball past Ronan. Meanwhile, it was a weekend to celebrate for Belvedere as their ladies fourth XI overcame the odds to claim the Division Six Cup at the weekend. The Ballincollig club have been blooding the next generation under Gerard Desmond’s expertise, and while their league form has been mixed they did the business when it mattered to defeat Limerick 1-0. Nessa Donnelly and Allyson Moore were the side’s heroes – the latter thwarted a number of Limerick short corners before Moore hit a second-half winner from a corner at the other end, and they held out to secure a famous win to add to tidy victories over Cobh and Ashton en route to the decider.