November A Busy Month for City of Armagh LadiesBy Paul McCord
City of Armagh U18 Ladies now have over 25 regulars turning up for training, recently playing matches against Virginia, Enniskillen and Donegal and their hard work is about to be rewarded as a group and as individuals.
On November 22nd the squad will travel to Ravenhill where, at half time in the Ulster / Edinburgh match, they will play against Bangor U18 ladies. For the Club to be selected to play in front of 12,000 people as a showcase for ladies rugby in Ulster is testament to the hard work and dedication over the last few years shown by Shirley-anne Donaldson, Zoe Templeton and current coaches Mark Riddell, Philip Fletcher and Neil Rafferty. If you’re going to Ravenhill for the Ulster match please be sure to stay out of the beer tent at half time and support the ladies.
Six of Armagh’s squad will then be representing Ulster U18s in a series of inter-provincial matches starting on Saturday 16th November in Dublin when they will play against both Munster and Connacht.
These matches will be played at Westmanstown sports complex just North of Dublin with kick off in the first game around 1pm. The interprovincial series ends on Nov 30th with a game against Leinster at Queen’s University with kick off at 12 immediately prior to the senior ladies Interprovincial match.
Congratulations are due to Vicky Irwin, Molly Lavery, Niamh McCord, Rachel Totten, Laura Henderson and Beccie McCauley who have all been selected to represent their province and Armagh is also well represented amongst the management of the Ulster squad as the team is coached by Jonny Gillespie and managed by Zoe Templeton.
The Ulster squad have been training in Armagh for the last 2 months and their final session is this Wednesday from 6:30 pm at the Palace Grounds which will be attended by the Irish ladies coach, Philip Doyle, who led the Irish ladies to Grand Slam success in the 6 Nations earlier this year.
