Caughey: We’ll Have To Bring Our Best Game To Belfast

Leinster out-half Nikki Caughey has been impressed with the strides her native province Ulster have made over the last year, as the teams prepare to face off at Kingspan Stadium on Saturday (kick-off 4.45pm – live on the Spórt TG4 YouTube channel/BBC iPlayer/BBC Sport website).

The Ulster-Leinster senior match is part of a double header, with the provinces’ Under-18 Women’s sides in action in the curtain raiser at 2.30pm. Tickets are available to buy here.

Ulster’s fiery fight-back from 25-11 down to draw with Connacht last week has earned them a shot at reaching the Vodafone Women’s Interprovincial Championship final, and they also have the big carrot of the August 31 decider being in Belfast.

Murray Houston’s charges have picked four points from the opening two rounds, leaving them just a single point behind second-placed Leinster whose title defence was dented by Munster’s thrilling 32-21 victory at Virgin Media Park.

Caughey says the players were not too downbeat in the aftermath, knowing that they still have a chance to secure their place in the final when they visit Ulster in this weekend’s last phase of round robin matches.

“Not too bad, it’s sport. You win some, you lose some,” she told Leinster Rugby TV. “I think what is important is that we take the positives from it, and things that we need to work on going into this week.

“Just kind of build that and get over the loss quickly, and start focusing on ourselves and starting focusing on Ulster this coming weekend.”

Caughey and her team-mates only have to look back to last season when they bounced back brilliantly from a disappointing opening round defeat to Connacht. They regrouped with a dominant 57-5 win over Ulster, before beating Munster twice to be crowned champions.

That clinical edge they showed in attack last year, which was also evident during the first half of their recent 38-19 victory over Connacht, was missing at key stages against Munster as they left potential scores behind them.

Towards the end of both halves in Cork last Saturday, Leinster created try-scoring opportunities but Munster managed to drag an advancing maul into touch, just metres out from the line, and Eimear Corri was held up – and Lucia Linn’s interception also thwarted them – during the final quarter.

Better ball retention is one of the Blues’ big aims heading north, with Caughey noting: “You have to take positives from that game. In attack there’s some really bright moments, a lot of line breaks, a lot of younger players doing a lot of things around the pitch that are really quite impressive.

“Just maybe working on our ball retention. We didn’t have the ball for a lot of the Munster game, but when we turned it over, it was a quick turnover and it was back putting pressure on ourselves again.

“I think if we can fix that and tidy that up, we can actually build a few more phases and have a bit of patience and come away with a few more scores. Hopefully not make it so tight.”

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Born in Belfast, Caughey got her first taste of senior Interprovincial rugby with Ulster in 2011. She actually made her debut against Leinster at Ravenhill that year, playing with Grace Davitt, Ulster’s current backs coach, and against Tania Rosser, her current head coach at Leinster.

The skilful dual international, who last played 15s rugby for Ireland in the 2022 Six Nations, moved to Dublin in 2014 as a contracted Ireland Sevens player and went on to become a key cog in Railway Union’s rise to becoming two-time Energia All-Ireland League winners.

She was the top points scorer in the Women’s Division last season with 122 points, continuing to set the standard for out-halves across the four provinces. The 2023/24 campaign also saw her play a big role in the Wolfhounds winning the Celtic Challenge at the first time of asking.

That successful Wolfhounds squad was mostly made up of Leinster and Ulster players, and included the likes of Brittany Hogan, Fiona Tuite, Sophie Barrett, and India Daley, four of the northern province’s best performers in the pack in recent weeks.

Asked for her own assessment of ever-improving Ulster, Caughey replied: “They’re not ever a team to take lightly. They’ve built really well this season, they finished the last Interpros beating Connacht, finishing on a high.

“It looks like they’ve kind of hit the ground running coming into this year. I know they haven’t quite got the results, but they’ve had two really good performances.

“Especially that second half performance where a lot of teams might dip off, they seem to just pick up, and do a comeback. Definitely a team that we need to focus on and bring our best game to get over.”

The former Northern Ireland underage netball player turns 32 the week after the Interprovincial Championship final, and celebrating her birthday as a back-to-back champion with Leinster would be the cherry on top of her early season efforts.

Rosser’s side certainly have the playing personnel to retain the trophy, between established Ireland internationals and up-and-coming youngsters. Aged 20 and 19 respectively, backs Jade Gaffney and Robyn O’Connor made their senior debuts against Munster.

“It’s funny, the younger ones are just so confident when they come in,” explained Caughey. “I think they probably have a lot more rugby knowledge than what, I suppose, my generation might have had at that age.

“We picked it up a lot later, whereas they’re coming in playing from when they were 14, 15, really good athletes. You’ve seen the impact that Jade and Robyn had. Robyn chasing back to make the try-saving tackle on Alana (McInerney), and then hitting the next ruck by the try-line.

“Jade just coming in (at scrum half) and speeding that ball up. It’s really great to have, it’s good to have that energy, and they obviously made a massive difference coming off the bench. I think we have a nice mix of experience and youth (in the squad).”

It is certainly a fast and furious start to the new season for the provincial players and coaches, with four intense rounds of games back-to-back. Caughey is a fan of how the Interpros are run off, and spoke about she minds her body to make sure she is ready to perform.

“I’m a bit older now, so the week-on-week is a bit harder on the old knees, but to be honest, it’s good. I just have to manage my body a wee bit more maybe than the younger ones.

“The warm-ups take a bit longer, the prehab. They’re all doing their 70-80-90% sprint in the warm-up, and I’m nowhere near 60 at that point! But I think it’s just I know my body at this stage and I know how to focus on that.

“I like the week-on-week (schedule), it gives you a quick turnaround and a chance to sort things out, and you don’t get too stiff! You don’t get too much time off, you know. I like that,” she added.