Ladies cruise into final

City of Derry Ladies...64

Letterkenny Ladies...0

ON Sunday City of Derry Ladies secured an Ulster Cup Final place with a 10 try 64-0 victory over near neighbours Letterkenny.

The match was played 13-a-side and to Under-19 laws as Letterkenny are a development team and could only field 13 players, although two of their backs are in the current Ulster team.

Letterkenny started well but it wasn’t long before the Derry girls got into their stride and following good continuity by both forwards and backs No 8 Stacey Lee Jackson broke through to open the scoring.

Although in control of all facets of the game, Derry’s play was rushed and frantic at times and it wasn’t until the 18th minute that they recorded their second try. Good pressure by the pack, led by Grainne Crabtree, saw the ball moved to the backs.

Out-half Rachel Lennox, who is developing into a fine 10, looped the centres to score a try in the corner and to increase the lead to 10-0.

Letterkenny had a couple of attacks but these were quickly snuffed out by the Derry defence. The home side continued to pressurise Letterkenny and this led to an infringement on their 10 yard line. Following the quick penalty and three swift rucks, scrum-half Louise Clarke touched down beside the posts. Lennox added the points for the conversion 17-0.

The next score came following a line-out on the Letterkenny 22. Lizzie Ballantine won the ball against the throw and Clarke set the backs in motion. Centre Kelly Holmes broke 3 tackles to score a well-deserved try which Lennox again converted.

Letterkenny were unlucky to lose their no 8 with a head injury but happily she was able to return to the game in the second half.

Just before half time Derry increased their lead to 36-0 when good forward play led to prop Elena Martin-Piniero crossing the line for a score in the corner.

From the restart Derry continued where they left off and it took only three minutes before out half Lennox breached the Letterkenny defence to cross for her second try which she converted to take the score to 43-0.

The 50 point mark was reached when Jackson picked from a scrum and powered over beside the posts to make the conversion a formality for Lennox.

Derry made changes of personnel and a couple of positional changes at this point but it didn’t seem to affect their performance.

Good forward play set the platform for scrum-half Clarke to break blind and feed winger Karen Canavan who sprinted 30 metres to score. Lennox again added the points to increase the score to 57-0.

The final stunning score came following broken play near the centre of the pitch. Jackson, playing her first game of the season following a serious injury, picked the ball and broke several tackles before showing Ulster winger Clodagh Llewhellin a clean pair of heels to score under the posts to complete her hat-trick. Lennox finished off a superb performance by drop-kicking the conversion.

Derry’s total dominance was confirmed when the referee blew the final whistle at this point with 15 minutes remaining and Derry 64-0 in front.

The return of Jackson, who showed her class and Kerri Duffy, who put in a fine performance, was the icing on the cake for the Derry girls.

The forwards performed well with Grainne Crabtree leading the pack well and making a string of storming runs, supported by Elena, Stacey Lee Jackson and Lizzie Ballantine.

The defence in the backs was solid with good tackling by Rachel Fleming and Helena Lindsay. Lennox showed that she is an accomplished goal kicker by converting 7 of the 10 tries.

Credit must be given to Letterkenny who had done well to reach the semi-final and never gave up but, on the day, the experience of the Derry team, even without their captain Diane Nixon, centre Bridin McDermott and back row Megan Lapsley, proved too much for them.

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