On Sunday City of Derry Ladies travelled to Belfast Harlequins for their first league match of the season and came away with a 5-0 victory.
On a windy day in front of a large crowd which, included Irish International scrum half Issac Boss, Derry had the better of the opening exchanges and after good driving by the forwards led by Louise
Clarke and Kerri McLaughlin, the ball was fed to the backs who put winger Nikki in for her first try in a Derry shirt. Indeed Derry should have had another try minutes later when, after good handling by the backs, centre Alana McCaffrey dived over the line but unfortunately dropped the ball.
Harlequins fought back and good runs by their No 8 and centre were only stopped by some good Derry defence and the half time score remained 5-0. The second half was a scrappy affair marred by the number of penalties awarded which stopped either side getting any momentum. Derry had a number of opportunities to put the result beyond doubt but a number of ‘dubious’ referring decisions stopped them scoring.
The handling of the backline is much improved and winger Clodagh McCool put in a performance reminiscent of David Campese, covering a lot of ground and being a real threat in attack by appearing anywhere in the backline.
In the forwards Louise Clarke has a superb game turning over a lot of ball and making good driving runs ably supported by Kerri Mclaughlin and Judith Orr. The scrumage was solid and indeed the referee asked the Derry pack to ‘ease off’ or he would have to go to uncontested scrums.
No 8 Miranda Mitchell did not let the added pressure of the captaincy affect her and her workload throughout the game was impressive.
New players Rachael Lennox & Hannah Morrow had sound games and add strength to the growing squad. Overall it was a good performance and analysis of the video footage will give Coach Rodney Balfour a few areas to work on before the next game.
Congratulations must go to Clodagh McCool who, after a great Inter-Provincial season for Ulster when she was a regular try scorer, has been called up to the Ireland Ladies squad for the forthcoming Internationals.
