Ireland Women: Team of the Decade

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by

John McMurtry

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We are pleased to announce the Ireland Women Team of the Decade as voted for by the readers of The Front Row Union.

The key objective of the poll was to help push the profile of the women’s game during lockdown and with over 11, 000 readers participating to cast over 21,000 votes it has to be a poll worthy of note.

The votes came from 75 different countries and over 500 different towns and cities, the Top 10 in each case shown below.

Top 10 Countries

  1. Ireland
  2. United Kingdom
  3. United States
  4. Australia
  5. New Zealand
  6. France
  7. Cameroon
  8. Canada
  9. Spain
  10. United Arab EmIrates
Top 10 Cities
  1. Dublin
  2. London
  3. Belfast
  4. Limerick
  5. Cork
  6. Drogheda
  7. Carlow
  8. Galway
  9. Balbriggan
  10. Navan

With regards to spreading the word, it was good to see so many community groups, who wouldn’t normally be visiting our pages, swing their votes behind one of their local players and hopefully that has helped raised the profile of a few players in their local areas.

The selected Starting XV accounted for just under 55% of the total votes cast and the Replacements accounted for another 18% leaving the players selected accounting for 73% of the total votes.

There were some close battles, and scrum half saw the most votes cast, for a single position, as the fans of and slugged it out.

Three players dominated their category with , and Claire Molly each receiving 75% or more of their positional votes, We’ll be putting these three through to a vote for Player of the Decade later in the week.

Final Standings

NOFIRSTVOTESSECONDVOTESTHIRDVOTESTOTAL
15Niamh Briggs943Mairead Coyne145Lauren Delany1431231
14Eimear Considine608Ashleigh Baxter (REP)349Niamh Kavanagh2621219
13Lynne Cantwell677Enya Breen523Jenny Murphy4511651
12Michelle Claffey921Sene Naoupu (REP)689Grace Davitt3181928
11Alison Miller1197Beibhann Parsons241Megan Williams1471585
10Nora Stapleton836Ellen Murphy581Nikki Caughey2151632
9Larissa Muldoon1134Tania Rosser (REP)668Kathryn Dane2542056
1Fiona Coghlan485Fiona Hayes (REP)420Lindsay Peat3301235
2Cliodhna Moloney884Gill Bourke (REP)389Derbhile nic a Bhaird1141387
3Ailis Egan599Fiona Reidy (REP)476Linda Djougang3411416
4Ciara Cooney963Sophie Spence (REP)551Aoife McDermott1651679
5Marie Louise Reilly619Nicola Fryday415Judy Bobbett1181152
6Ciara Griffin543Anna Caplice310Siobhan Fleming2021055
7Claire Molloy773Edel McMahon160Sinead Ryan1021035
8Joy Neville589Paula Fitzpatrick (REP)422Heather O’Brien1731184
TOTALS117716339333521445

The Team of the Decade

IRELAND WOMEN TEAM OF THE DECADE AS VOTED FOR ON THE FRONT ROW UNION

Thanks to everyone that voted and congratulations to all the players involved.

Here’s to the next 10 years!

IF in Doubt, sit them out

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