The Penn State Women’s Rugby team’s annual springbreak tour to Ireland was a success as the team prepared for the upcoming play-offs. With the help of Martin Gallagher, former USA Women’s Head Coach, Penn State was welcomed to the western town of Galway, the center of Connacht Rugby.
The team arrived in Ireland on Friday, March 5th and practice started on March 6th. The team worked hard for the first 8 days of the tour, working on skills and fitness, as they knew they would get the last weekend off to recover. The traditional War of the Roses match was held on Sunday with the White Roses pulling away behind a dominant performance of their pack. Each year the first game on tour is an intra-squad scrimmage and the players are either the Red Roses of Lancaster or the White Roses of York, and they stay with those teams for their Penn State career.
On Tuesday the teams got their first taste of competition against University College – Galway. It was a very close game played in a very picturesque setting with a ruined castle in the background. Great goal line defense by Penn State kept the UCG out of the try-zone in the first half before they finally scored in the second. However a first half try by Sadie Anderson and a try by Alyssa Boff in the second led the team to a well earned 12-5 victory.
The second game that day was against a Connacht Development team, made up of the players from the second division in the Connacht league. It was the developmental teams first ever match and their lack of familiarity showed as they struggled to keep up with the pace the Penn State team set. The final score was 56-5 with tries from Leslie Walsh, Lisa Henneman, Christiane Pheil, Annie Ziegler, Jen Robertson, Sarah Dickie, Kathy Stepanoff and Farrah Douglas.
Wednesday saw another practice and then a number of players went to see the Connacht Schools finals. There were almost 3000 spectators in the ground to watch the Under 16 and U19 schools matches. The level of play was very high, with a number of players having represented Ireland at various levels, and the excitement and intensity was great.
On Thursday night the team prepared for its last and toughest match of the tour against the Connacht senior women’s all-star team. While Connacht did not play their 3 Irish internationals the team was very experienced. Played on a chilly night Penn State started well and had the better play in the first half. Connacht’s kicking game was excellent and their defense was also strong, however Penn State was able to retain possession for long periods and eventually they were able to break the Connacht defense and take the lead 7-0 and it stayed that way until half-time. Some injuries and substitutions at the half meant that Penn State lost some of its cohesion, and they Connacht team continually forced Penn State back into their own 22 because of some great kicking. This pressure lead to 5 tries for Connacht in the second half and the final score was 27-7. This was the good physical game that Penn State needed, and it exposed some weaknesses that the team will address before they head into the National play-offs.
The team then traveled to Drogheda, a town about 20 miles north of Dublin. On Saturday they headed into Dublin to enjoy the city on a 6 Nations weekend as Ireland was playing Wales. The city is electric with all the Welsh and Irish fans, and rugby banners and posters everywhere. The team traveled home on Sunday tired, but ready for the start of their journey through the playoffs.
The Penn State team started this journey on Saturday with their first round of the Mid-Atlantic playoffs against Virginia Tech. The Women defeated VA Tech 46-3 and head to Wilmington, DE this weekend for MARFU Playoffs. The Round of Sixteens is scheduled for April 17th-18th in Florida and then Final Four at Stanford April 30th-May 1st.
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