Ulster lock Fiona Tuite scoring a try for Wolfhounds during her Player of the Match performance
WOLFHOUNDS 52 GLASGOW WARRIORS 26
Richard Bullick
GLASGOW scored an unanswered 26 points in the final half hour but back-to-back champions Wolfhounds had already posted twice that without reply in this Celtic Challenge game of two halves at Virgin Media Park in Cork.
Helped by several eye-catching breaks, one of which brought her a try, Ulster second row Fiona Tuite was awarded Player of the Match by her former fellow Ireland lock Eimear Corri-Fallon, but there were other excellent contenders too.
The remarkable Linda Djougang scored a wonderful long-range try for a prop, new Ireland skipper Erin King’s breakdown work was awesome and another adopted Ulsterwoman Abby Moyles took her chance to impress filling in at outhalf for the rested Dannah O’Brien.
As against Brython Thunder in Belfast the previous Sunday, Wolfhounds ran riot with six first half tries while conceding nothing, though this time their interval score was even higher due to the excellent conversion rate by Moyles.
Here too, Neill Alcorn’s side added a seventh touchdown almost immediately after the resumption and brought up their half-century of points without the scoreboard having been troubled by the opposition.
But thereafter the two weekends differed, for while Welsh visitors Brython were nilled at Ravenhill, enterprising Glasgow fought back with four tries of their own, the last of which secured them a bonus-point towards the end.
Alcorn had highlighted the clean-sheet side of that 69-0 scoreline at Ravenhill when asked how pleased he was with the huge haul his own team ran up, so the Wolfhounds head coach won’t have liked leaking the four tries against Glasgow.
One also recalls the Belfast man banging the desk at Belfield Bowl last January, when Wolfhounds conceded a try right at the death against Brython Thunder when leading 57-0, so he won’t just shrug off what happened in the last half hour as a footnote.
However, tough taskmaster Alcorn – under whom Wolfhounds have lost only one of their 22 matches over the past three seasons – was justifiably upbeat after what was still a comprehensive victory by a much-changed team from the week before.
“Girls were given opportunities today and they took them really well. We showed in the first half how quick we want to play and we just need to make sure we keep going through for the full 80 minutes,” he reflected in his post-match interview.
Perhaps mindful of the big game against closest challengers Gwalia Lightning – who will come to Cork next weekend on the back of four victories in a row since narrowly losing to Clovers in Dublin before Christmas – ahead, Alcorn rested a number of frontliners.
That backline contingent included Wolfhounds skipper Aoife Dalton, three other first-choice Ireland backs in Stacey Flood, O’Brien and Aoibheann Reilly plus arguably the hottest prospect in the country right now, Robyn O’Connor.
Put another way, Wolfhounds went in against Glasgow without the services of Ireland Player of the Year Dalton and their four Player of the Match award winners from the first four rounds of the Celtic Challenge in O’Connor, Reilly, O’Brien and Flood respectively.
In advance many might have felt it would be fascinating to see how Wolfhounds would cope but, in that opening period, it was a case of ‘no Dalton, no Flood, no O’Brien, no Reilly, no O’Connor – no problem’.
That isn’t perhaps, strictly speaking, entirely true as Dalton’s outstanding defensive marshalling seemed notable by its absence in the first few minutes and the ruthless young Offaly woman might have shut down some of those second half forays by the Scots.
Ulster outhalf Abby Moyles about to kick one of her six conversions from eight attempts in Cork
Likewise, Reilly has had an outstanding first four matches of this campaign, O’Brien brings great control at outhalf, Flood is such an accomplished footballer and Wexford fire-cracker O’Connor a special prospect.
So that quintet were notable absentees but making eight changes didn’t feel like a very big gamble by Wolfhounds, who were still able to field a starting line-up packed with no fewer than eight Irish internationals.
Last season’s victorious skipper, Claire Boles from Fermanagh, filled in for Dalton as captain from the blindside of an unchanged, all international loose forward trio behind a front five featuring Ireland’s most capped present player Djougang and Tuite.
Dalton’s regular Ireland midfield partner Eve Higgins, who had taken a turn on the bench the week before, slotted into her old outside centre channel with her fellow Olympian Vicky Elmes-Kinlan again wearing the No 12 jersey.
Elmes-Kinlan’s only two caps for her country have come on the wing but she bagged a brace of tries from inside centre against Brython and, with Leah Tarpey not involved this season, is the go-to option when either Higgins or Dalton are being given a break.
Wolfhounds fielded a completely changed back three against Glasgow, with welcome chances for Amy Larn and Katie Corrigan as well as a recall for Blackrock’s prolific finisher Maggie Boylan, the leading Irish try-scorer after the first three rounds of this competition.
Former Kildare gaelic footballer Larn hadn’t been seen in navy and white since coming off the bench in the opening game against Edinburgh before Christmas, while Corrigan hadn’t featured at all in this campaign up until now.
Both might have been expected to play plenty, but Boylan – not named in the initial squad – had seized her chance with both hands, the 33-year-old Marley started twice and O’Connor was deployed more on the wing than in her primary fullback berth.
Although Larn and Corrigan were in Belfast last weekend, it was lining out for Old Belvedere away to Cooke in the All Ireland League on the Saturday rather than with Wolfhounds the following day so they would have been eager to impress against Glasgow.
It was scoring 12 tries in five matches in this competition two years ago aged just 18 which catapulted Corrigan into the Ireland starting team for the 2024 Six Nations and she touched down in each of the three home matches of that campaign.
For various reasons, she hasn’t featured for Ireland since despite showing her cutting edge, even with limited game-time in last season’s Celtic Challenge, and the 20-year-old served a timely reminder on Sunday of how lethal she can be out wide with a great try.
The lively Larn, who started nine matches for Wolfhounds last season, showcased herself fairly well at fullback and it would be a surprise if she isn’t in the matchday squad come the business end of this competition.
Compared to the Belfast fixture, Boylan came in for Marley, with Larn and Corrigan replacing Flood and O’Connor respectively, with Meath woman Moyles and Jade Gaffney forming a new halfback pairing in the absence of O’Brien and Reilly.
Armagh-born Maebh Clenaghan came in at hooker for her Ulster skipper India Daley and Blackrock’s Kate Jordan returned to partner Tuite in the engineroom with young Naoise Smyth taking a turn on the bench having started the first four fixtures.
Having been released last week to play in Enniskillen RFC’s All Ireland Junior Cup final, tighthead Sophie Barrett returned to the matchday squad as part of an all-Ulster reserve front row with clubmate Daley and teenage prop Cara McLean.
With sevens specialist Kate Farrell-McCabe brought in for the first time and Marley wearing the No 23 jersey, there were five Ulster players on a bench which included Leinster newcomer Alex Connor as back-up scrumhalf.
Top prop Linda Djougang rampages away for a stunning try to secure Wolfhounds’ bonus point
It wasn’t a perfect first half performance from Wolfhounds, with Boles uncharacteristically spilling several restarts and a malfunctioning lineout, but they still managed to post 40 points in a first 40 minutes featuring some glorious rugby by the hosts.
Five of their six tries before the break actually came from forwards, though the last three by Djougang, Tuite and openside flanker Maeve Og O’Leary all featured notable turns of pace by the scorer and certainly weren’t close-range efforts.
It was Glasgow who threatened first but King won a turnover penalty on her own line and Djougang twice pounced on loose balls before Corrigan and Larn used their pace to chase a long kick by Moyles and bundle the opposition player into touch just inside her own 22.
King won the lineout, the Wolfhounds maul made ground quickly, Higgins had a dart and then powerful Wicklow loosehead prop Caoimhe Molloy spun in a tackle to touch down for an eighth minute try which Moyles converted.
The first of Tuite’s big breaks was soon followed by a Moyles penalty to touch and a lineout in a similar location to that which provided the platform for the opening try, but this time Wolfhounds had something different up their sleeve.
A trick-play round the front saw the pacey Clenaghan burst down the right touchline followed by carries from O’Leary and Tuite before the ball was moved left and King used her muscular athleticism and intensity to get the touchdown.
That concession was tough on young Glasgow fullback Poppy Mellanby who had made a try-saving tackle on Corrigan coming off her wing, and the conversion from Moyles – which rubbed salt in the wounds by going over via an upright – made it 14-0 after 15 minutes.
Wolfhounds went further ahead before the end of the first quarter, Tuite making a long break to halfway after another turnover won by her team, King getting involved and Moyles releasing Corrigan down the right touchline.
Already tall, and now more bulked-up physically than the youngster who first burst onto the scene so spectacularly, Corrigan is a formidable specimen but the flyer from Wicklow showed she hasn’t lost either her pace or footwork out wide.
It was classic Corrigan as she showed a clean pair of heels before stepping inside the fullback brilliantly to score a great try and Moyles completed her hat-trick of conversions before Boles again fumbled the restart.
Maeve Og O’Leary with her family after Sunday’s Wolfhounds victory over Glasgow Warriors
Those errors would have annoyed the perfectionist from Lisbellaw but actually led to the bonus-point try for Wolfhounds as they won yet another turnover at a subsequent breakdown and Djougang got winger Boylan away wide on the left.
Boylan passed back inside to her supporting prop and Djougang never looked like being caught on a storming run down the touchline from just over halfway for a stunning try even by the great woman’s standards.
This time, Moyles’ conversion attempt struck the upright and stayed out but Wolfhounds found themselves 26-0 up midway through the first half after a burst of three tries in five minutes, and Glasgow’s woes were compounded by their restart going out on the full.
The almost freakish King used insane strength and a superb body position to win a relieving penalty at a breakdown but Wolfhounds faltered at three lineouts in a row, with two throws deemed not straight and another ball going over the tail.
Wolfhounds struck again on the half hour, however, when Larn ran a Glasgow kick back over halfway, Boylan broke a tackle and King battled through contact before slipping the ball up to Tuite who romped home from 35 metres out.
It was a try which resonated with match co-commentator Corri-Fallon, who like Tuite had initially been involved in athletics and also started her rugby career as a winger before converting to the second row.
Moyles landed the straightforward conversion and added the extras for a fifth time when Wolfhounds struck again on 35 minutes for their sixth try of the afternoon, following a searing break by Corrigan running onto a clever kick by Larn inside her own 22.
Fullback Larn was up in support to make another few yards down the outside and Tuite’s pass to O’Leary allowed the Munster captain to thrash through a couple of attempted tackles on a fast, forceful run to the posts from some 20 metres out.
The television cameras picked out O’Leary’s proud parents applauding in the stand as this dream afternoon for Wolfhounds continued, though they were indebted to 2024 World Rugby Breakthrough Award winner King for keeping Glasgow scoreless at the break.
Wolfhounds winger Maggie Boylan on the attack against Glasgow in Cork’s Musgrave Park
Instead of dotting down an opposition kick which trickled just over the Wolfhounds line, Larn set off on an ambitious counter-attack, then held on in the tackle and Glasgow threatened from a quick tap only for King to come up with a truly stunning rip and avert the threat.
Wolfhounds had now run up an aggregate of 159 points in two and a half matches, starting with the away game against Edinburgh in round three, and things got worse for Glasgow before they got better.
The Warriors would have been desperate for a good start to the second half but fell further behind within just 47 seconds after a shuddering hit by lock Jordan exposed Glasgow’s folly of trying to open out in their own 22 from Moyles’ long kick-off.
Molloy surged over for the opening try of a half, just as she had done at the start of the afternoon, and Moyles made no mistake with her place-kick, taking the scoreline out to an ominous 47-0.
After brief kick-tennis, Moyles fed Corrigan and, although the winger’s pass to the hitherto relatively quiet Higgins wasn’t great, the classy centre came up with the sort of incisive contribution she seems to make at least once in most matches.
Higgins went on an arcing outside break before feeding centre partner Elmes-Kinlan on her inside to take Wolfhounds through the half-century barrier with some 34 minutes still left. Surprisingly, Moyles drilled her relatively easy conversion attempt past the near post.
Glasgow were really staring down the barrel so it is to their enormous credit that Wolfhounds didn’t score again, while the visitors themselves showed that their five-try haul against Clovers seven days earlier wasn’t some attacking flash in the pan.
Alcorn had begun ringing the changes, with Farrell-McCabe and McLean the first replacements introduced after the eighth try and before Glasgow co-captain Holland Bogan got her 53rd minute touchdown following sustained pressure from the women in black.
Player of the Match Fiona Tuite making one of several eye-catching breaks for Wolfhounds
With Wolfhounds now under unprecedented pressure compared with earlier in the afternoon, Tuite was sinbinned on the hour mark and Glasgow’s replacement halfbacks came up with seven points, Rianna Darroch scoring the try and Millie Warren again converting.
That was the cue for further Wolfhounds changes, with Barrett, Daley, Marley and rookie scrumhalf Connor coming on, though the first lineout with the fresh hooker resulted in another crooked throw.
The visitors were continuing to apply pressure and got further reward with 10 minutes remaining courtesy of a try by New Zealand-born centre Briar McNamara, which Warren converted to make it 52-21.
Tuite didn’t return from the sinbin, with Smyth taking over at lock and Aoife Corcoran came on in the back row for King, who has increased her match minutes from 20 to 40 to 60 to 70 over these past four fixtures having just returned from long-term injury.
Wolfhounds’ Ireland centre Eve Higgins feels the force of a double tackle against Glasgow
The home crowd were hoping Wolfhounds could finish with a flourish but instead it was Glasgow who had the last word, winger Sky Phimister getting outside the clutches of Marley to score her team’s bonus-point try five minutes from the end.
Although Glasgow conceded 109 points on two visits to Ireland in the space of a week, they scored 57 of their own including nine tries, and the two bonus-points picked up keep them on course to make the Celtic Challenge’s inaugural semi-finals in March.
Wolfhounds remain favourites to complete a hat-trick of title triumphs on the strength of five consecutive bonus-point victories to date but will undoubtedly face their toughest test so far when Gwalia Lightning – who won 43-7 away to Edinburgh – come to Musgrave Park.
Alcorn won’t need reminding that it took a combination of Boles, Molly Boyne and Dalton to hold up an opposition player over the tryline with the clock red to save Wolfhounds from defeat against Gwalia at the same Cork venue last season.
Providing none have injury issues, Wolfhounds will presumably bring back all of their big guns and put their best foot forward in what is their last match on Irish soil until the final round of regular league games when they tackle Clovers at Belfield Bowl on March 7.
Player of the Match Tuite was justifiably pleased with the first half performance from Wolfhounds, while agreeing that the team could draw lessons from the Glasgow comeback before facing Gwalia.
“We started with such momentum in the first half. We played on top, played with pace and it was really good. We know we dropped off a bit in the second half and I was disappointed personally with that yellow card.
“But really, really happy overall. I thought we were absolutely motoring in that first half and there’s a lot to build on now for next week,” reflected Fiona, whose side conceded 14 points during her 10 minutes in the sinbin.
“Glasgow were brilliant there in that second half. I thought their subs brought a massive impact as well, they really upped the tempo that they were playing with and defensively we just felt smothered.
“We’ll learn a lot from it. I think we have to stay really switched on during the half-time break. Like, we got a score really early on (in the second half), but it’s building on that and not just scoring, switching off and then letting them come on top of us.
“I think it’s mental resilience through there (that’s needed) and just sticking to our process rather than compounding errors on top of one another,” Tuite told her ex-Ireland team-mate Corri-Fallon in the post-match interview.
Neither head coach Alcorn nor captain Dalton are the type to get carried away and will be well aware that the second half of this league phase looks significantly more challenging on paper than the opening half which has seen them run up a bumper 229 points in five games.
The remaining five fixtures for Wolfhounds feature three trips outside of Ireland in succession, sandwiched between their two toughest home matches, against fellow top half teams Gwalia Lightning and Clovers respectively. They’ll want to keep pushing hard.
WOLFHOUNDS: Amy Larn; Katie Corrigan, Eve Higgins (Kate Farrell-McCabe, 47), Vicky Elmes-Kinlan, Maggie Boylan (Niamh Marley, 63), Abby Moyles, Jade Gaffney (Alex Connor, 63); Caoimhe Molloy (Cara McLean, 47), Maebh Clenaghan (India Daley, 63), Linda Djougang (Sophie Barrett, 63), Kate Jordan, Fiona Tuite (Naoise Smyth, 71), Claire Boles (capt), Maeve Og O’Leary, Erin King (Aoife Corcoran, 71).
Munster skipper Maeve Og O’Leary dives over for the sixth Wolfhounds try of the first half
Recalled winger Katie Corrigan (left) and lock Kate Jordan celebrating the Wolfhounds win
