Women’s Rugby

Leinster League Division 1

Mullingar 19 Naas 33

Match Report: David McKeown

Photo: Andrea Brady Photography 

Naas Women maintained their unbeaten record in 2025 with another strong performance against a talented Mullingar team on Sunday. This means the Naas women will avoid any relegation battle and stay in Leinster Division 1

From the start, the game was defined by the Naas pack’s domination of their young opposition, with a scrum penalty setting up good field position after 4 minutes. A series of drives by the forwards eventually led to Naas legend Beverly Lillian Mahon storming over from at least 50 centimetres to score her first try in women’s rugby.

Mullingar hit back 4 minutes later after some poor tackling allowed the home side to put their centre away for a try under the posts. With the score at 7 all, both teams struggled to find any fluency, until Naas centre Ali Miley broke through the Mullingar defence to score a fine individual try, which was converted by Amy McGuire, making the score 7 to 14.

Naas then defended well against some good attacks by the Mullingar women, who were not able to find a gap. After 35 minutes, Naas centre Sheena Hubbard then shot into the Mullingar attacking line making an outrageous interception and dotted down under the posts for Naas’ third try of the day. After another successful conversion by McGuire, the Naas pack fought relentlessly for every ball and kept Mullingar at bay until half time.

Naas turned round at half time to play with the wind, and the young Mullingar team started to flag visibly as the strong Naas pack turned the screw. The Westmeath women then showed some good pace with a well worked run down the wing after stealing Naas ball at a lineout.

The score stayed at 19 21 for the next 20 minutes as some indiscipline from Naas allowed the Mullingar women to win some good field position. When Naas did manage to win some ball, McGuire’s excellent kicking game pushed Mullingar back several times.

More indiscipline from Naas led to a very rare yellow card for captain Jane Fallon, but Mullingar were not able to capitalise. Strong counter attacking from Zoe Dunbar and Orlaith Graham eventually got Naas back into the Mullingar half and the Baltic Bomber, Asta Rowe, made it two tries in two weeks with a powerful surge on 65 minutes.

Dunbar nearly scored 6 minutes later, but the Mullingar defence did really well to hold her up over the line. Naas scrum half Ciara Mckeown took a quick tap 2 minutes later and forced her way to the Mullingar line. The Naas pack recycled brilliantly to feed Ali Miley, who scored her second of the day, making the score 19 31.

With three minutes left on the clock, Mullingar pressed desperately in the Naas 22, until the Naas forwards won another penalty at the breakdown. With time up, McGuire tapped the ball and passed it to hooker Ellen Murray, who managed to kick the ball for the first time ever on a rugby pitch. Her natural footballing talent meant the kick was successful, if not attractive, and the ball went out for full time.

Particularly impressive today were the front row players Emma Tully, Ellen Murray, Melissa Hayden, Karen Plunkett and Rachel Clarke. Several scrum penalties and three scrums won against the head laid the foundation for another great Naas performance.

Naas women are now safe from any relegation battles and can look forward to the Cup competition. Head Coach Mick Barton says “We’re delighted to finish our first year in the top division of Leinster rugby in the top half of the table. We’ve come through some challenging times this season, but the players have responded brilliantly to everything”.

 

1 Emma Tully

2 Ellen Murray

3 Melissa Hayden

4 Asta Rowe

5 Bev Mahon

6 Cleo Hubbard

7 Amy Moran

8 Jane Fallon (C)

9 Ciara McKeown

10 Amy McGuire

11 Jamie Garland

12 Sheena Hubbard

13 Ali Miley

14 Orlaith Graham

15 Zoe Dunbar

 

16 Rachel Clarke

17 Karen Plunkett

18 Tash Maroney

19 Sorcha Nolan

20 Jess Weld