There are a few criteria you could use to determine the team of the season; most games won, most points scored, fewest points conceded, largest spread of try scorers, highest conversion rate, and in all of those, bar one, UL Bohemian RFC come out on top by some margin, taking the Women’s All Ireland Team of the Season award for 2019 – 20.
The players in Limerick will be desperately disappointed that they didn’t get to finish what could have been the season of the decade as they looked set to complete a league and cup double without a single defeat.
Of course, cup finalists Old Belvedere together with league challengers Railway Union and Blackrock will claim, with some justification, that “on their day” they could have got a result against the Munster Mean Machine.
They have in the past, anything could happen in a one off game, but, as an interested observer, this Boh’s side just seemed too focused to contemplate any slip ups this season.
Looking at the Form Indicator below shows just what an extraordinary season UL Bohemian were having.
The Limerick side only dropped one match point the whole season winning all 12 games and 11 of those with a try bonus point.
In any other league, Railway Union’s average of 4 match points a game would have been a table topping performance but they found themselves 11 points adrift with 2 matches to play when the season was brought to it’s abrupt end.
Of course, defending champions, Railway found themselves 8 points adrift and in third place in the league when they went into the playoffs last season (which was a 12 game regular season due to the withdrawal of Highfield) but UL Bohemian have picked up 13 additional match points this season compared to last and they looked unstoppable.
In fact, Blackrock appeared to be the team most likely to challenge in the playoffs if they continued to build on their four match unbeaten run at the end of the season.
However, looking at the stats below it’s hard to spot any weakness for their opponents to exploit in this season’s Boh’s side.
Leading points scorers, most tries, and largest spread of scorers, coupled with the tightest defence, Bohs were truly impressive.
The only weakness was their try conversion rate, which was the second worst in the league at 39%. Malone’s kicker Alexa Grudgings took the honours of the best conversion rate over the season at 65% but, in Bohs case, conversions were just icing on a cake already flowing over the edges of the plate.
An absolutely fantastic season for the UL Bohemian RFC and one worthy of recognition under any circumstances. Congratulations to their management team of Fiona Hayes, Niamh Briggs, Ciara Griffin and Sara Hartigan on a fantastic job.
You can view all their scorers below.
| UL BOHEMIAN | T | C | P | BG | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chloe Pearse | 15 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 75 |
| Nicole Fitzgerald | 0 | 28 | 0 | 0 | 56 |
| Stephanie Nunan | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 40 |
| Sarah Quin | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 35 |
| Edel Murphy | 5 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 31 |
| Fiona Reidy | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 30 |
| Alana McInerney | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 20 |
| Clodagh O’Halloran | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 20 |
| Eimear Considine | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 20 |
| Laura Sheehan | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 20 |
| Niamh Kavanagh | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 20 |
| Rachel Allen | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 19 |
| Claire Bennett | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 15 |
| Aoife Corey | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 |
| Ciara Griffin | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 |
| Kate Sheehan | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 |
| Laura O’Mahoney | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 |
| Lily Brady | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 |
| Nicole Cronin | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 |
| Caoimhe Tiernan | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Ciara O’Halloran | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Emma Doolan | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Niamh O’Neill | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Orla Curtin | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Sarah Garrett | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| TOTAL | 85 | 33 | 0 | 0 | 491 |
You can view the rest of the teams scorers in the dropdowns below.
