The Women’s All Ireland League resumes this weekend after a six week break.
This promises to be an interesting time as the top three sides, UL Bohemian, Railway Union and Old Belvedere are likely to be missing a substantial number of players due to various Ireland camps for 7’s and the Six Nations.
The Week 9 fixtures are as follows;
| Sat 13th Jan | Old Belvedere | v | U.L. Bohemian | Anglesea Road |
| Sun 14th Jan | Blackrock | v | Tullamore | Stradbrook |
| Sun 14th Jan | Galwegians | v | Cooke | Crowley Park |
| Sun 14th Jan | Railway Union RFC | v | Highfield | Park Avenue |
The Saturday fixture between Old Belvedere and UL Bohemian promises to be the tie of the round, pitching as it does first against third. Old Belvedere will be looking to make some ground on the top two but as I haven’t seen any team sheets it’s difficult to guess what way this one is going to go.
However, as Boh’s have won every other match in the league this season it would be churlish to bet against them coming out on top in this one.
Sunday’s games should also be interesting enough for various reasons.
Blackrock v Tullamore sees 6th at home to 5th Despite their 6th place standing in the league dublin based Blackrock should still be losing a few players to various camps giving the Offaly girls a chance to turn them over and continue their mini revival.
Cooke’s trip to Galway pitches 4th against 7th and with Cooke losing precious few players to the Irish camps the Belfast outfit should be returning back home with a full points haul against Galwegians, or “out of sorts” Galwegians as we have christened them this season.
Railway Union entertain Highfield in the last match of the weekend which pitches 2nd against 8th and on the face of it it would be expected to be a comfortable win for Railway. However, the Park Avenue outfit are missing a phenomenal 36 players this weekend between camps and injuries which gives Highfield a chance for an upset.
The current league standings are shown below.
| Team | Pl | W | D | L | PF | PA | PD | TB | LB | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| U.L. Bohemian | 8 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 293 | 67 | 226 | 7 | 0 | 39 |
| Railway Union RFC | 8 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 366 | 50 | 316 | 6 | 0 | 34 |
| Old Belvedere | 8 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 246 | 94 | 152 | 5 | 1 | 26 |
| Cooke | 8 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 149 | 127 | 22 | 3 | 0 | 23 |
| Tullamore | 8 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 110 | 315 | -205 | 3 | 1 | 12 |
| Blackrock | 8 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 132 | 312 | -180 | 3 | 0 | 11 |
| Galwegians | 8 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 105 | 280 | -175 | 3 | 1 | 10 |
| Highfield | 8 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 84 | 240 | -156 | 2 | 1 | 9 |
