Frost foils girls in green
Ireland 10 Wales 3
(Game abandoned at half-time due to frozen pitch)
Ireland's icy weather conditions took their toll last night as the Women's Six Nations opener against Wales was abandoned due to heavy frost at Ashbourne.
A decision was taken to abandon the game at half-time because of the worsening conditions, with Ireland leading by 10-3 at the break.
The hosts had most of the pressure in the opening quarter, and the large home support certainly weren't disappointed when Alison Miller delivered an 18th-minute try following a superb run, which started when she gathered possession in the middle of her own defence.
Niamh Briggs pushed Ireland 7-0 ahead with the conversion, but the hosts were forced to defend strongly over the next 20 minutes.
Ireland coped well with the Welsh, with Briggs putting in a good tackle on Laura Prosser in the 24th minute and good hits also coming in from from Ashleigh Baxter and Grace Davitt.
Although Wales were reduced to 14 players following the 36th minute sin-binning of flanker Sioned Harries, the visitors continued to pile on pressure, and forced a 40th-minute penalty, which Prosser converted.
But Briggs put Ireland 10-3 clear at the break, with the last kick of the half seven minutes into injury-time, before a decision was taken to abandon proceedings during the interval.
IRELAND -- A Baxter; N Kavanagh, N Briggs, G Davitt, A Miller; L Cantwell, A Davis; F Coghlan, G Bourke, A Egan, ML Reilly, S Spence, L Guest, C Molloy, J Neville.
WALES -- M Evan; C Murray, P Tuttiett, A Taviner, R Fletcher; N Thomas, L Prosser; C Thomas, R Bowden, J Davies, V Owens, S Powell-Hughes, S Harries, R Taylor, J Kift (C Flowers 26).
REF -- K White (SRU)
Irish Independent
