Tallaght Women 29
Tries: Aisling Pyke, Chloe Conroy Kearns 2
Conversions: Grainne Leonard Flood 2, Chloe Conroy Kearns
Penalty: Grainne Leonard Flood
West Offaly Lions 21
Sunday, 8th March, 2026
Leinster League Division 5
Pitch 100, Firhouse
Tallaght women took on the West Offaly Lions at home in their final Division 5 league match of the season.
Tallaght were looking for a win to get revenge for a hard fought defeat in Ferbane in January. A win would also mean they would finish in the top half of the table. Tallaght started well and some good team play created a chance for Martina Fitzpatrick to put Aisling Pyke in for a try. Grainne Leonard Flood converted to give Tallaght a 7-0 lead. But the Lions hit back with a breakaway try which was converted to make it 7-7. That was the end of the scoring until just before halftime when Grainne Leonard Flood kicked a penalty to make it 10-7 to Tallaght at halftime.
In the second half it was an increasingly tough, physical contest. Adriana Silvela was getting through a mountain of work in attack and defence and Samantha Ledden was really getting stuck into tackles, flinging Lions players around with abandon. Aisling Pyke spotted a gap and broke away to score her second try of the match, with Grainne Leonard Flood”s conversion making it 17-7.
Tallaght looked like scoring again from a great Chloe Conroy break but an offload went to ground and the Lions out-half scooped it up and ran it back for a try she converted herself to make it 17-14. Tallaght hit back with strong carries from Louise Leonard Flood and Lorraine McManus setting up a good phase of pressure and eventually Chloe Conroy scored a try out wide to make it 22-14. The Lions got a yellow card for a dangerous clearout on Lorraine McManus which left the Tallaght skipper with a swollen cheekbone but she gamely carried on.
To their credit the Lions kept going as time ran out and they scored a converted try to make it 22-21 with two minutes left. But Tallaght showed great composure to get back up the field and finish the game off with Chloe Conroy’s second try of the match. Conroy converted her own try to make the final score 29-21 to Tallaght and deny the Lions a losing bonus point.
Tallaght head coach Adam Nolan was delighted to see his side finish the league off with a win. “We’ve struggled with numbers all season so to finish third in the league, winning half our games and only having to concede one match is actually a bit of an achievement. We played some really good, smart rugby today. Fair play to the Lions they kept coming back at us, but we kept our cool to seal the deal.”
“Picking a player of the match was tough as there were so many contenders like Aisling Pyke, Sam Ledden and club legend Martina Fitzpatrick. Martina is claiming it will be her last league game before retiring at the end of the season but we’ll see as we’ve heard that talk before from her. But the player of the match was Chloe Conroy Kearns who was a constant danger in attack but also made several big hits in defence. We’ve a three-week break now before we play Portlaoise away in the cup but we’re looking forward to finishing the season strongly.”
Player of the match: Chloe Conroy Kearns
Tallaght RFC
- Martina Fitzpatrick
- Samantha Ledden
- Faith Perrin
- Adriana Silvela
- Lorraine McManus
- Louise Leonard Flood
- Grainne Leonard Flood
- Aisling Pyke
- Chloe Conroy Kearns
- Kim Littlefield
- Mayara Santos