Boyne: Hannah’s Our Inspiration And Our Role Model

Leinster’s Molly Boyne and Leah Tarpey paid tribute to captain Hannah O’Connor’s influence both on and off the pitch, following their 27-7 Vodafone Women’s Interprovincial Championship final victory over Munster.

O’Connor unfortunately missed out on playing in the title decider due to concussion, and confirmed her decision to retire from playing for both Leinster and Ireland in the aftermath at Kingspan Stadium.

The 34-year-old forward informed her team-mates of her retirement ahead of the Munster match, and joined Boyne, Leinster’s stand-in captain, to lift the Interprovincial trophy together following the Blues’ terrific three-try performance.

Speaking afterwards, Boyne said: “There is no one quite like Hannah. She has been the backbone and the leader of this team over the last few years.

“Her presence was really felt during this week and then, in turn, the girls really wanted to go out and do this for her and bring it home in her name. She was with us every step of the way.

“She was running water for us, giving us advice, and she was just amazing (all week) and you felt like she was with you out there today as well, even though she wasn’t on the pitch.

“She is our inspiration and our role model and I am so glad we could win this for her today.”

O’Connor has led Leinster to back-to-back Interprovincial crowns in the last twelve months, something the province only achieved once before when the Blackrock College star was part of the successful 2018 and 2019 squads skippered by Sene Naoupu.

Playing Munster in a crunch clash certainly seems to bring the best out of young centre Tarpey. She shone during last year’s final in Cork, chipping in with two tries in a player-of-the-match display, and repeated the feat on Saturday.

O’Connor was also on Tarpey’s mind when she spoke after the trophy had been retained in Belfast, with the recently-turned 21-year-old telling TG4: “I’ve over the moon, it’s great. The girls really put in a great shift. We knew it would be hard today, Munster is never easy.

“So we knew coming up here to Kingspan that we had a job to do and I feel like we did that, and we executed everything like we said we would.

“I’m just really proud of the girls, and proud that we could do that today for our captain Hannah, who missed out. I’m just so proud of the whole group that we were able to do it for her.”

The last year has also seen the Laois youngster win silverware with Ireland in WXV3, and the Wolfhounds in the Celtic Challenge, yet a cruel run of luck with injuries dogged her, including a calf tear, Achilles tendinitis, and a medial cruciate ligament strain.

Back to full fitness for just her second Interprovincial campaign at senior level, Tarpey missed out on a starting spot for the first two rounds, but was reunited with Aoife Dalton in midfield for Leinster’s closing wins over Ulster (39-14) and Munster.

Admitting that she used that disappointment around selection as ‘fuel to push harder’, she said: “Having that competition within the squad just shows the strength in numbers, and the depth in our squad.

“It just really pushed me on having the likes of Aoife, Cara Martin, all the other centres there fighting for the same position. It just really drove me on, and I think I needed that to give me a bit of a kick.”

For her first try against Munster, the five-times capped Ireland international made the most of a bouncing Nikki Caughey kick to burst clear from halfway to score, and her second was a classy 58th-minute effort that saw her link brilliantly with centre partner Dalton.

Also a try scorer against Munster and Ulster in recent weeks, the final’s player-of-the-match said that Tania Rosser’s side were determined to avenge what was a frustrating 32-21 second round defeat to Munster.

“I feel like the disappointment that we felt two weeks ago playing Munster, we knew we were coming into this game as the underdogs,” she explained.

“We just wanted to prove a point that we were better than how we showed against them the last day. I feel like we really did that.

“This week in training it was just execution and nailing all the details, and I feel like we really did that today.”

While Tarpey’s try on the hour mark effectively sealed the result, industrious flanker Boyne highlighted the period just after half-time when Leinster were able to protect their hard-earned 17-7 lead as Munster came hunting for a timely response.

The table toppers almost got it when Dorothy Wall broke off the back of a big lineout maul, but Caoimhe Molloy held her up in determined fashion. In the context of the game, it was a hugely important moment, and Leinster did not look back from there.

“Everything that we’ve been building over the last couple of months really that stood to us there,” acknowledged Boyne, who captained the Wolfhounds to Celtic Challenge glory at Kingspan Stadium last February.

“That last 30 minutes is everything that we’ve been working hard for. I think the girls did a fantastic job. We just said at half-time that we need to keep going, that we had huge energy and that we weren’t tired.

“That we could keep going and if we won that next 10-minute block after half-time that the game was going to be ours, and we did, so we’re really delighted with that.”