It took an last minute Niamh Briggs penalty to turn a decent draw into a wonderful win for Ireland Women this evening.
English fly-half Katy McLean looked to be struggling with the blustery conditions as she failed to take advantage of a seemingly simple penalty but she made no mistake two minutes later as she put the first points on the board.
Ireland levelled the tie up via the boot of Briggs, the skipper, on 26 minutes.
The first try came from the women in white though as England’s number 8 Harriet Millar-Mills touched down for an unconverted try, the last score of the half leaving the scores at 8-3.
Ten minutes after the break, Ireland Women drove determinedly at the English line before Larissa Muldoon crossed to make it 8-8 and set up a vital final half an hour for both sides after Briggs missed the resulting conversion.
It looked destined for a draw as England’s aggression going forward was met with an impenetrable Irish defence.
And so it came to the final chance for either side to claim victory as Briggs readied herself over the tee before slotting over the penalty to seal an historic Irish win at Ashbourne.
