Ulster’s domination of age-grade girls hockey shows no signs of abating, as both their U18 and U16 sides claimed their third interprovincial titles in a row with 100% records at Milltown in Dublin.
The U18s, an outfit laden with Irish Youth Olympians, hit 19 goals and conceded just one in their four games, as tournament top scorer Katie Mullan, Joanne Orr and Lucy McKee found the net with regularity. A comfortable 3-0 win over second-placed Leinster secured their victory yesterday.
Munster finished in third with two wins from four, and will look back at their single-goal first-day clashes with Leinster and Ulster with regret.
Ally Moore and Rebecca Barry scored in a 3-2 defeat to Leinster, a game the southerners were disappointed not to extract more from, while they limited free-scoring Ulster to just a single effort from Orr in a 1-0 defeat.
However, they recovered to beat Connacht 1-0 and South East 3-0, inspired by Catholic Institute pairing Barry and Roisin Upton, who shared those goals between them.
It was a similar story for Munster’s U16s, who lost narrowly to Leinster and Ulsteron day one to quench their hopes of annexing some silverware for the first time since 2002.
They recovered yesterday to hammer South East 4-1 with goals from Georgina Lee, Sinead Houston, Laura Buttimer and Edel Nyland, but a last-gasp 1-0 loss to Connacht left them in fourth place.
Meanwhile, UL’s ladies will find out their fate this evening, after failing to fulfil their Division One fixture away to UCC.
Having pulled out late on Friday, citing a lack of available players, the struggling Limerick students could face a fine, points deduction or both. The Munster Branch fixtures committee will meet this evening to determine what sanction, if any, is necessary.
ESB U18 and U16 Interprovincials, Alexandra College, Dublin
U18
Leinster 2 (E Russell, A Naughton) Connacht 0;
South East 0 Ulster 8 (L McKee 3, J Orr 3, L Ewart, D Axon);
Munster 2 (R Barry, A Moore) Leinster 3 (A Naughton, E Beatty, J Maguire);
South East 1 (A Murphy) Connacht 4 (A Dunne, F Timmins, H Galligan, C Power);
Ulster 1 (J Orr) Munster 0;
Munster 1 (R Upton) Connacht 0;
South East 0 Leinster 4 (A Naughton 2, L McCarthy, E Hinkson);
Ulster 7 (K Mullan 3, J Orr, K McDonald, C Brown, C McCann) Connacht 1 (F Timmins);
South East 0 Munster 3 (R Upton, R Barry 2);
Leinster 0 Ulster 3 (K Mullan 2, L McKee);
Standings (points/goal difference): 1 Ulster 12pts (+18); 2 Leinster 9pts (+4); 3 Munster 6 pts (+2); 4 Connacht 3pts (-6); 5 South East 0pts (-18).
U16
South East 0 Ulster 4 (R Chambers 2, Z Wilson, K Edgar);
Munster 1 (E Nyland) Leinster 2 (A Roopnarinesinigh, H McDermott);
South East 0 Connacht 3 (A Finnerty, R Bradley, A Meagher);
Ulster 3 (P Joyce, R Chambers, B Barr) Munster 1 (S Houston);
Leinster 2 (H McDermott, S Quill) Connacht 1 (A Ferris);
South East 1 (E Duncan) Leinster 2 (S Quill 2);
Ulster 1 (B Barr) Connacht 0;
South East 1 (S Murray) Munster 4 (G Lee, S Houston, L Buttimer, E Nyland);
Leinster 0 Ulster 2 (B Barr, E Kernoghan);
Munster 0 Connacht 1 (E Carey);
Standings (points/goal difference): 1 Ulster 12pts (+9); 2 Leinster 9pts (+1) 3 Connacht 6pts (+2); 4 Munster 3pts (-1); 5. South East 0pts (-11)
UL Ladies should not have been allowed back into Division 1 this season. They failed to complete a number of fixtures again last year and got away with it. They only managed to stay up in Division 1 because Waterford dropped themselves down. They are making a mockery of the whole league if you ask me. Neither Ulster or Leinster branches would tollerate this behaviour.
At least a club like Fermoy were even given a chance in Divsion 1 ,(all other clubs in Divsion 2 already have team in Division 1), they would at least give it 100% and have bit of respect for their opponents.
To be allowed to carry on like this two seasons in a row is disgraceful. Munster needs to do something about this to stop these antics and another season of wasting the time of other hard working clubs in Munster.
Both munster teams played out of their skin. they were outstanding. well done girls!
RE TO ‘NOT IMPRESSED’ – would you not have any sympathy for the girls in UL? They’re just students. I agree they should have gone down to Div 2 but for the players involved they’re going to get hammered week in/week out for the 2nd season in a row… no wonder they can’t get teams out to away fixtures with the prospect of another hammering… hockey should be fun & isn’t in these circumstances… I think the branch need to get in touch to figure out how to help them – they’ve had to pull out of the varsitiies too… comments like yours berating the club don’t help matters.. maybe it might be possible at this early stage to bump them down into Div 2 to help them by getting them competitive games…
@ *not impressed*
I can see why you’re annoyed at UL failing to fulfil a fixture again this year, but it’s worth considering a few things here.
Look at UCC over the past few seasons; the fortunes of both the men’s and women’s first teams have ebbed and flowed, from relegation to Munster Senior Cup victories. These things are cyclical; player turnover is high, and student clubs obviously don’t have youth structures they can invest in. So the quality of the sides they put out can vary significantly from year to year.
This is where the UL conundrum comes in. On one hand, if you drop them down a division, they will certainly be more competitive and it could allow them to regroup as a club and rebuild a team. The flipside is they will also become less attractive to new, Div 1 standard players who can improve them, and the few they currently have could jump ship too. Given UL are only a two-team club, it could all collapse pretty quickly, and no-one wants to see them follow Midleton ladies and Moyne/Thurles into extinction.
Student clubs present a unique set of circumstances, some of which can be positive for the sport – for example, UCC have brought more than 20 new adult players into the men’s game in the past couple of years – but some negative, as we’re seeing at the moment.
My experience in Munster hockey is most people are reasonably supportive of players heading off to play college hockey for a few years. In that context, there is some fantastic youth development going on at Institute, Limerick and the new Crescent club, so let’s hope some of that finds its way to UL sooner rather than later.
I’m not claiming to have the solution here; it’s an unenviable task for both the club and the branch. No-one wants to see a side getting hammered and giving walkovers, it benefits neither them nor their opposition. Here’s hoping UL can get back on track sooner rather than later though.
Hi Alan,
Following n from the interpros last weekend, can i just take this chance to say well done to the girls on my squad. They performed exceptionally well, and were unlucky not to get few decisions which could have turned games in our favour. We were all bitterly disappointed with the two defeats on the Saturday, after playing so well, but thats sport – and mistakes cost games at this level.
However, the way the girls regrouped and played on Sunday showed the calibre of players involved within Munster and the spirit within the camp. Depsite the scoreline of 1-0 against a good Connacht side we were in fact well on top and could have won by more. The 3-0 scoreline against South East totally reflected the game, with our Gk [N. Flanagan] not having a save to make while we dominated the ball and possession.
There were a number of postivies to come out of the tournament from my point of view, namely our ability to convert PC thankfully this time round – 5 of our 6 goals came direclty [or from rebounds] from PC.
It is on this note that i’d like to finish up, by informing all – that it was infact Sarah Sullivan, the captain, that scored our sole goal against Connacht, and not Roisin Upton [sorry Rosin :)]. Sarah got the touch on Roisin’s flick!
Thanks again to all players, and well done!
Dave Egner
Head Coach Munster U18
As a parting request