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Back To Back All-Ireland Titles Remain A Possibility For St. Rynagh's

Monday, 21 February 2022 09:44

By Sally Hurley

Photo Credit: Dave Boylan

The Offaly and Leinster champions will face Galway opposition in the final.

St Rynaghs 2-11 

Gailltir 1-11 

A mouth-watering encounter was expected on Saturday afternoon in Nenagh, between these two teams who have become very familiar with each other in the past few years. Gailltir, the Munster champions, from Waterford, had taken the spoils on two of three previous meetings, but crucially St Rynaghs came out on top on their most recent meeting, taking the title of All Ireland champions 2020 from the team they lost to in the 2019 final. St Rynaghs were slight favourites going into the game but Gaillitir would be keen to make up for losing last time out. 

Gaillitir, playing towards the town end of the pitch, had a strong wind behind them and had a lot of possession in the first half and opened the scoring after 5 minutes when a high swirling ball caught Ellen Gilligan in the Rynaghs goals off balance and Alanna Sullivan pounced and finished the ball to the net. The Offaly girls however, retaliated almost immediately when Emma Corcoran cut through the Gaillitir defence and her shot was only half blocked by the goalkeeper and Linda Sullivan quickly whipped the ball away from the Gailltir goalkeeper to level the scores.  Shortly after, Kate Kenny pointed her first free taking opportunity after Gaillitir were deemed to have over carried to put Rynaghs in the lead.  She followed it up with a point from play next after a great pass from the hard working Helen Dolan. Gaillitir then had another goal chance but the ball was booted over the bar rather than into the net much to the relief of the St Rynaghs faithful to finishg the scoring in the first half.  

The second half was a thriller with end to end excitement.  St Rynaghs captain, Grainne Dolan, was leading by example and the half back hit the opening score of the second half with a fantastic point.  Then came the pivotal moment of the game, when Siobhan Flannery was brought down in front of the Gaillitir goal and instead of taking it herself, she left it to the Player of the Match, Roisin Egan, who smashed the ball to the corner of the net with the confidence of a regular penalty taker.  It was quickly followed by a brace of points from Kate Kenny, with one coming from a free and suddenly St Rynaghs had a 5 point lead. But the champions knew Gaillitir would not give up without a fight and a tough, tense and nail biting few minutes followed with Gaillitir hitting 4 points in the next 8 minutes and St Rynaghs managing a point in return. The St Rynaghs backline defended with all their might and held firm against their opponents. Siobhan Flannery hit the final score of the game with an excellent point to leave a goal between the sides when the referee finally blew his final whistle. 

St Rynaghs will now go on to play Salthill Knocknacarra of Galway on 6 March as the look to win back to back All Ireland titles. 

Player of the Match: Roisin Egan.  An outstanding performance from the sweeper and to step up to score the penalty was icing on the cake. Special mentions should also go to Grainne Dolan, Helen Dolan and Emma Corcoran whom could all have equally have received the accolade. 

St Rynaghs team: Ellen Gilligan, Sinead Moran (JC), Elaine Sullivan, Meabh Doorley, Emma Corcoran, Grainne Dolan (JC), Katie O’Connell, Helen Dolan, Roisin Egan, Linda Sullivan, Sinead Hanamy, Mairead Daly, Siobhan Flannery, Kate Kenny, Louise Mannion. 

Subs: Roisin Daly for Elaine Sullivan.

St Rynaghs scorers: Kate Kenny 0-6, Linda Sullivan 1-0, Roisin Egan 1-0 (pen), Siobhan Flannery 0-2, Mairead Daly 0-2, Grainne Dolan 0-1 

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