St. Rynagh's Secure Three-In-Row Leinster Intermediate Camogie Title

They face Ulster opposition next.

Celbridge 1-4  

St Rynaghs 2-9 

Report by Sally Hurley 

The Offaly champions have had a busy last couple of weeks on their travels to Wexford and Carlow and on Saturday they travelled to Clane in Kildare to play the 2020 Leinster Intermediate Club Final against Celbridge of Kildare as they went in search of their third Leinster title in a row. 

 After a tough semi-final against Myshall Mark Dunne and his management started with the same line out except for Louise Mannion slotting in at corner forward.  One other change St Rynaghs needed to make was a change of jersey due to both club’s colours being predominantly blue and St Rynaghs lined out in the green, white and gold of Offaly. 

The match first half started with a shock for St Rynaghs with Celbridge on the attack straight from the throw in and it resulted in Holly Tynan pulling on the sliotar on the ground and driving it to the back of the St Rynaghs net.

This gave Celbridge a lot of confidence but St Rynaghs were determined to make up for the early set back and Linda Sullivan almost equalised immediately when a pass from Mairead Daly found her alone in front of the Celbridge goal but unfortunately her shot was off target. 

Sullivan was involved in St Rynaghs next attack but Siobhan Flannery was deemed to have been fouled and she tapped over the resulting free to open the Offaly team’s account.  While St Rynaghs dominated for most of the first quarter this was not reflected on the scoreboard, however, they were rewarded when Mairead Daly hit a shot that trickled past the Celbridge goalkeeper, Sarah Kelly to leave her team leading by the minimum at the water break. 

Shortly after the restart, a great hook from Linda Sullivan in the middle of the pitch started an attack by Katie O’Connell that resulted with Louise Mannion been brought to the ground in front of goals and a penalty being awarded to St Rynaghs.  Offaly sharpshooter Siobhan Flannery stepped up and fired the sliotar over the bar.  The Shannonsiders were now in their stride and tagged on another 3 points before half time to leave them leading at half time on a scoreline of Celbridge 1-2 St Rynaghs 1-5. 

They started the second half sprightly when Kate Kenny hit an excellent point from the left hand side line to extend her side’s lead.  Celbridge fought back and almost scored their second goal but put the ball flew past Ellen Gilligan’s post and wide. Similarly St Rynaghs were unlucky not to hit the net when a great solo run from Katie O’Connell from midfield resulted in Sarah Kelly in the Celbridge goals getting a touch to deny a perfect end to an excellent piece of play by O’Connell.  Louise Mannion hit St Rynaghs’ second point of the half over from a difficult angle and showing why she was missed in the past few months due to an injury.  

Celbridge replied with a point from an excellent piece of individual skill from their goal scorer Holly Tynan. They continued to keep pressure on the champions by lobbing high balls into the square but Ellen Gilligan dealt with them in the St Rynaghs goals.  With 43 minutes on the clock another of those high balls was dealt with again by Gilligan and with St Rynaghs working the ball through the lines and feeding Kate Kenny, she gave the Celbridge defence no chance and buried the sliotar to the back of the net and leave her team with a 6 point cushion at the water break. 

Again Celbridge came at St Rynaghs but time and time again the defence held strong and with the forwards keeping the scoreboard ticking over the Offaly team never seemed in too much trouble and went on to win relatively comfortably to win an impressive third Leinster Intermediate title in a row. 

Roisin Egan was awarded Player of the Match and continues to show her class in remaining cool under pressure and showing lovely control of the ball.  Other performances of note came from Elaine and Linda Sullivan who were outstanding in their work rate.  Katie O’Connell, at 17 years old continues to show great potential for her team and Louise Mannion also impressed in the forwards.  Last but by no means least, Kate Kenny showed again her value as she continues to be a menace for opposing defences. 

Next weekend St Rynaghs will play the Ulster champions Eglish from Tyrone in the 2020 All Ireland semi-final in Templeport St Aidan’s in Cavan.  Eglish won the Ulster comfortably when they beat Down champions Clonduff on a score of 2-11 to 1-3 last weekend.  

St Rynaghs:

Ellen Gilligan, Sinead Moran, Elaine Sullivan, Meabh Doorley, Emma Corcoran, Grainne Dolan, Katie O’Connell, Helen Dolan, Roisin Egan, Linda Sullivan, Sinead Hanamy, Mairead Daly, Aoife McLoughlin, Kate Kenny, Siobhan Flannery. 

Scorers: St Rynaghs: Kate Kenny 1-3, Mairead Daly 1-0, Siobhan Flannery 0-3 (1 penalty, 2 frees), Louise Mannion 0-2, Katie O’Connell 0-1 

Congrats @strynaghcamogie! Video from our Live Stream will follow.. @MQ_Video @LeinsterCamogie @OfficialCamogie @OffalyCamogie @willocallaghan @Midlands103 pic.twitter.com/JcLUykrTpT

— Jerome Quinn (@JeromeQuinn) December 11, 2021