#EnergiaAIL Live: Blackrock v Old Belvedere Preview
Blackrock College's Aoife Moore and Old Belvedere's new captain Lesley Ring face off ahead of their teams' first round clash in the Energia All-Ireland League
The Energia All-Ireland League is back with a bang on Saturday evening, with live coverage of reigning champions Blackrock College in action against local rivals Old Belvedere.
Irish Rugby TV will stream a regular schedule of matches on YouTube this season, starting with the Women’s Division opener at Stradbrook and followed by Cork Constitution against City of Armagh in Men’s Division 1A on Saturday, October 7.
Our commentary team this weekend is Daragh Frawley, from The Club Scene Podcast, and 2013 Grand Slam winner and former Ireland dual international Alison Miller.
Irish Rugby TV spoke to Blackrock College’s Aoife Moore and Old Belvedere’s newly-appointed captain Lesley Ring at the season launch in Energia Park last week.
With ‘Rock chasing back-to-back league titles, Moore said: “It’s a massive match (first up). When you go up against one of the Dublin teams it’s always a big game because we know everyone so well.
“It’s great to have coverage of the match and for younger girls to be able to watch the game on the live stream.”
#EnergiaAIL Live Preview
Amanda Greensmith, IRFU Head of Women’s Development, commented: “It’s great to have this kind of coverage of the Women’s game. We saw the impact last season with live matches reaching a young female audience.
“Growing the game is also about growing awareness of the game, and social media plays a huge part in helping us to connect to the players and the wider audience.”
Speaking about the plans for the season ahead, IRFU Digital Content Manager Barry Cunningham stated: “We’re delighted to be showing more live games this season. We’ve worked with the clubs to expand the breadth of content across our channels over the last two seasons and we’ve seen incredible levels of engagement and views.
“Working with our content partner. Videos On The Net, and the team from The Club Scene Podcast, we’ve mapped out a schedule of games across the season to compliment the matches streamed by the clubs themselves.
“To have Ireland legend Ali Miller on comms this weekend is really exciting, so we hope that people will tune in or second screen on Saturday evening to watch.”