Ruthless Limerick power past Clare to score big win in U23 Camogie Championship

With a place in the semi-finals of the All-Ireland U23 'B' Camogie Championship on the line, Limerick went all-in right from the throw-in and coasted to a comprehensive 18-point 4-16 to 1-7 win over Clare at the TUS Moylish Campus on Thursday night.

“Two wins from two, just the start you want. We got the bounce from last week's victory over Antrim and we're really happy with this performance,” said Limerick manager David Deady.

Playing with focused determination against the elements, a lightning start built on the back of the first of their four goals put their opponents immediately on the back foot and, once they maintained the margin of their lead all the way to the break, they were able to turn of the style in the second half in one of the most impressive displays of Limerick side for years in any grade of camogie.

Heading into back-to-back outings against Wexford and Down in this competition and against Cork in the Munster championship the depth of the performance over the entire hour was perhaps its most satisfying feature. Instead of a tendency to rely on frees, the entire lineup got involved in both attack and defence as five of the six starting forwards got on the scoresheet.

Limerick's power play right from the throw-in denied Clare gaining any advantage from the squally wind at their backs and, despite conceding Danielle Beston's strike on the break, they equalised with one of their own from Carla Griffin and then set down their marker when Sarah O'Brien drew the challenges with solo and offloaded to Griffin who slotted into the far corner of the net.

The 'Banner' tried to reply but were denied space by their opponents' tight full-back line and, when the hosts stepped on the pedal again, Laura Southern and Griffin's free had the gap out to five before Aisling Cooney answered with a free and Ciara Mulqueen deflected Maedhbh Melia's shot on goal from close range over the crossbar.

Going past the quarter mark, Limerick regained their dominance of the middle third and were quickly rewarded by Lizzie Boylan's scything solo up the middle before laying off to Southern who banged in her side's second goal and then followed up with strikes on the run from O'Brien and Southern. A Banner rally coming up to the break yielded a free for Cooney and Ellen Casey's point from a tight angle way out on the left but the home side had the last word of the opening half when Ella Hession waltzed through the challenges and split the the post to give her side a lead of 2-6 to 0-5 as they headed into the dressing-room.

The breeze eased off after a few bursts of rain over the interval and Clare looked like launching a comeback when Melia pointed under pressure from an acute angle after Griffin's free opened the second half scoring.

However, their hopes were instantly squashed when Southern pulled on Boylan's pass across the square for her second goal and, while Casey replied with a free that was brought in for dissent, Donna Kenny answered that instantly from the resulting puckout before Southern collected from her Monaleen team-mate Emily O'Halloran to complete her hat-trick and Teresa Dore came all the way up from corner-back to put fourteen points between the sides with a monster strike.

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Melia struck a note of resistance when winning contested possession inside the large square and beat the challenge to strike into the corner of Ciara Mulqueen's net with still most of the second period to play but, as the Banner failed to pierce the Limerick defence for another nine minutes, the game died away as a contest and the subs were given a run.

Scoring restarted with with a quickfire trio of Griffin frees and, with their confidence growing with every move, Limerick sprayed around the passes for Amy Burke, Southern, Griffin's free and Hession to finish the scoring.

SCORERS:

LIMERICK: Laura Sothern 3-4, Carla Griffin 1-6 (0-6 frees), Ella Hession 0-2, Sarah O'Brien, Donna Kenny, Teresa Dore, Amy Burke 0-1 each.

CLARE: Maedhbh Melia 1-2, Aisling Cooney 0-2 (2 frees), Ellen Casey 0-2 (1 free), Danielle Beston 0-1.

LIMERICK: Ciara Mulqueen; Cliodhna Ryan, Ciara O'Riordan, Teresa Dore; Mai McKenna, Ellie Woulfe, Eimear O'Donovan; Emily O'Halloran, Donna Kenny; Ciara Curtin, Lizzy Boylan, Sarah O'Brien; Laura Sothern, Ella Hession, Carla Griffin.

Subs: Muireann Leahy for Mai McKenna (35 mins), Amy Burke for Lizzy Boylan (48 mins), Saoirse Fitzgerald for Sarah O'Brien (51 mins), Ciara Power for Eimear O'Donovan (51 mins), Kaelin Ryan for Donna Kenny (55 mins).

CLARE: Sophie Cullen; Cliona Queally, Caoimhe Lally, Caoimhe Ryan; Gráinne McMahon, Ellen Casey, Aoibhín Marren; Aoife Anderson, Danielle Beston; Éabha O'Driscoll, Aisling Cooney, Hannah Neylon; Aoibhinn McNamara, Maedhbh Melia, Tara Moroney.

Subs: Elisha Rynne for Ashling Cooney (44 mins), for Ellen Casey (44 mins), Tara Marren for Maedhbh Melia (44 mins), Lorraine Brady for Aoibhinn Marren (44 mins), Áine Rodgers for Aoife Anderson (51 mins), Eimear Begley for Danielle Beston (51 mins).

REFEREE: Karol Collins (Galway).