World Footy News

Thanks to Leiha Shrubsall for contributing this match write up.

Final score: Irish Banshees 13.14 (98) to European Crusaders 8.8 (52)

 The Irish Banshees attended their third consecutive Euro Cup last weekend taking with it a team of mostly new players, some of them having never played a match previously. The European Crusaders were a team made up of French, Scottish, Spanish and English players. The Irish knew it was going to be a tight contest from word go having played alongside the Scottish girls earlier in the year at the Haggis cup, so they anticipated the match to be a lot tougher this year.

The match was to be a 60 minute thriller with the crusaders kicking the first goal and pushing the Banshees to breaking point in the first quarter with a few decisions going against them. The Crusaders continued dominate the game with the captain, Vanessa Temple, showing of her soccer skills, thrice kicking the ball along the ground around the Irish defence to score a goal and didn’t the crowd love that! With the bagpipes blowing in the background, the Crusaders were all over the Banshees who could not get things moving to their liking in the first and second quarter.

The Banshees regrouped and regained focus, coming alive in the third quarter with help from Irish forward Nuala O’Hagan splitting the sticks with dead accuracy every time. Tall centre Louise Loughlin was also having a good day booting one from 45 out to the delight of the Irish team and really lifting their spirits after a shocking first quarter. The last goal blew the crowd away when the Irish Captain, Avril Robinson, kicked the leather off the ball to seal the deal for the Banshees third Euro cup title. The match was very gritty with some heavy tackling, bumps and spills from both sides, at the end the Irish Banshees emerged winners for the third time in a row to remain unbeaten internationally.

We are looking forward to next year, it will be the forth euro cup featuring a women’s section and we’d all love to see more teams in this section. Scotland are not far off from a national team and neither is England so if you are interested in playing aussie rules please see afleurope.org for our contact information.