Anyone else going? The u20s are on before hand. Gonna be in Kielys of Donnybrook from about 4

Ireland team for their grand slam decider Vs England. Good solid Connacht representation.

Donnybrook Stadium, Friday, March 17, kick-off 8pm

15. Kim Flood (Railway Union/Leinster)
14. Hannah Tyrrell (Old Belvedere/Leinster)
13. Jenny Murphy (Old Belvedere/Leinster)
12. Sene Naoupu (Aylesford Bulls)
11. Alison Miller (Old Belvedere/Connacht)
10. Nora Stapleton (Old Belvedere/Leinster)
9. Larissa Muldoon (Railway Union)
1. Lindsay Peat (Railway Union/Leinster)
2. Leah Lyons (Highfield/Munster)
3. Ailis Egan (Old Belvedere/Leinster)
4. Sophie Spence (Old Belvedere/Leinster)
5. Marie Louise Reilly (Old Belvedere/Leinster)
6. Ciara Griffin (UL Bohemians/Munster)
7. Claire Molloy (Bristol/Connacht)
8. Paula Fitzpatrick (St. Mary's/Leinster) (capt)

Replacements:

16. Ciara O'Connor (Galwegians/Connacht)
17. Ilse van Staden (Cooke/Ulster)
18. Ruth O'Reilly (Galwegians/Connacht)
19. Ciara Cooney (Railway Union/Leinster)
20. Nichola Fryday (Tullamore/Connacht)
21. Mary Healy (Galwegians/Connacht)
22. Nikki Caughey (Railway Union/Ulster)
23. Mairead Coyne (Galwegians/Connacht)

Here are the Welsh and Irish teams for today. A good Connacht representation. A win today sets up a grand slam decider next week vs England

WALES WOMEN: Dyddgu Hywel (Scarlets); Elen Evans (Scarlets), Kerin Lake (Ospreys), Rebecca de Filippo (Newport Gwent Dragons), Adi Taviner (Ospreys); Robyn Wilkins (Ospreys), Keira Bevan (Ospreys); Caryl Thomas (Scarlets), Carys Phillips (Ospreys) (capt), Amy Evans (Ospreys), Rebecca Rowe (Newport Gwent Dragons), Mel Clay (Ospreys), Sioned Harries (Scarlets), Rachel Taylor (Scarlets), Shona Powell-Hughes (Ospreys).

Replacements: Lowri Harries (Scarlets), Cerys Hale (Newport Gwent Dragons), Gwenllian Pyrs (Scarlets), Siwan Lillicrap (Ospreys), Alisha Butchers (Scarlets), Rhiannon Parker (Cardiff Blues), Elinor Snowsill (Newport Gwent Dragons), Gemma Rowland (Newport Gwent Dragons).

IRELAND WOMEN: Kim Flood (Railway Union/Leinster); Hannah Tyrrell (Old Belvedere/Leinster), Jenny Murphy (Old Belvedere/Leinster), Sene Naoupu (Aylesford Bulls), Alison Miller (Old Belvedere/Connacht); Nora Stapleton (Old Belvedere/Leinster), Mary Healy (Galwegians/Connacht); Lindsay Peat (Railway Union/Leinster), Leah Lyons (Highfield/Munster), Ailis Egan (Old Belvedere/Leinster), Sophie Spence (Old Belvedere/Leinster), Marie Louise Reilly (Old Belvedere/Leinster), Ciara Griffin (UL Bohemians/Munster), Claire Molloy (Bristol/Connacht), Paula Fitzpatrick (St. Mary's/Leinster) (capt).

Replacements: Ciara O'Connor (Galwegians/Connacht), Ilse van Staden (Cooke/Ulster), Ruth O'Reilly (Galwegians/Connacht), Ciara Cooney (Railway Union/Leinster), Nichola Fryday (Tullamore/Connacht), Larissa Muldoon (Railway Union), Nikki Caughey (Railway Union/Ulster), Mairead Coyne (Galwegians/Connacht).

Referee: Claire Hodnett (England)
Assistant Referees: Joy Neville (Ireland), Simon Rees (Wales)
Television Match Official: Eric Gauzins (France)

Great that the Womens page is being re-dedicated back. Well done Branch- made a mistake and corrected it. Keep the conversation going..

Disappointed that it happened in the first place, but glad that those in the branch have taken note of the backlash and are in the process of returning the page to one about women's rugby.

Thank goodness common sense prevailed

www.facebook.com/ConnachtRugbyClubAndCom...4271/?type=3&theater

Just spotted this update.

Betty Swallocks wrote: Who in the Branch is responsible for this action regarding the purloining of the Women's Rugby Facebook page, and has Willie Ruane been approached to reverse the decision?

All anyone knows is what Carol posted above. Anything else I could say I would be guess work on my part. The only way to know for sure is to email the branch or post on the community Facebook page that has taken over the women's page

Who in the Branch is responsible for this action regarding the purloining of the Women's Rugby Facebook page, and has Willie Ruane been approached to reverse the decision?

connemara man wrote: Carol Staunton on Facebook

Folks, as a former Connacht women's captain, committee member, and Connacht Women's Rugby Facebook admin, I'd be very grateful if you'd oblige me and respond in some way to the action taken recently in commandeering the our Facebook page.

At first glance, this hardly seems like a big deal: it has presumably been taken over and rebranded to align more closely with the Connacht Rugby website, and will cover more rugby within the province as a result. All good, right?

Well, no - take a closer look.

The reality is that this wasn’t just a mere page. It was so much more than that: a carefully curated record of the goings on in women’s and girls’ rugby in the province following a meeting in 2013 during which we collectively copped on to the idea that this forum could be the means to how we build this aspect of the game, promote it and expand it – and MY GOD it worked!
We reached out to past and present players, to coaches, managers, and rugby enthusiasts. Friendships formed, as did working relationships, and what has emerged since then is a strong and colourful web of interactions that made us grow (from a measly 300 likes!), made us better, and made us stronger. It’s no coincidence that women’s and girls’ rugby in the province has boomed simultaneously.

So, it’s particularly galling to see that, in a home World Cup year, in the season that the women’s provincial teams broke through with some fantastic results, that women’s and girls’ rugby in Connacht has been made that little more invisible. The fact that this action was taken without the consultation of any of the Connacht Women’s Rugby Committee is farcical and a poor reflection of the branch’s attitude towards not only women’s and girls’ rugby, but to its volunteers who have often kept the show on the road.

By now, everyone must be bored with the repeated fact that coverage of women’s sports generally is substantially less than coverage of men’s sports. So, to subsume women’s and girls’ rugby under the Club and Community banner is to imply that the job for promoting it separately is done. It’s not; it never really is. We have not reached parity – and even then, parity sometimes isn’t the point. In many cases, just as in this one, the point is that a dedicated resource to this aspect of the sport becomes a network, a meeting place, an archive, a record. And now it’s no more. The fact that the other branches have dedicated women’s pages speaks volumes.

The support for the retention of the page from our brilliant friends and supporters of the game in Connacht has been extremely encouraging. There have been many calls to start a new women’s and girls’ rugby page. However, should you have correctly identified the need and desire among thousands of people for a dedicated resource to promote women’s and girls’ rugby, they would have started their own Club and Community resource. A splinter page, started from scratch, just doesn’t seem viable or, if I’m honest, fair. We already built our Facebook family from scratch – that work has already been done and, now, negated.

It’s not an exaggeration to say there is a huge group of past and present players, as well as supporters, that are genuinely hurting. And it certainly isn’t an exaggeration to say this was more than a Facebook page, and that this issue is bigger than “brand integrity”.

Oh, and Happy International Women’s Day!

With respect to my earlier observation, this obviously puts a different complexion on things...
Fire ahead so folks, with my full support....

Jaysus this is a PR disaster. Can't see the logic behind it. The branch needs to do something about this quickly.

Carol Staunton on Facebook

Folks, as a former Connacht women's captain, committee member, and Connacht Women's Rugby Facebook admin, I'd be very grateful if you'd oblige me and respond in some way to the action taken recently in commandeering the our Facebook page.

At first glance, this hardly seems like a big deal: it has presumably been taken over and rebranded to align more closely with the Connacht Rugby website, and will cover more rugby within the province as a result. All good, right?

Well, no - take a closer look.

The reality is that this wasn’t just a mere page. It was so much more than that: a carefully curated record of the goings on in women’s and girls’ rugby in the province following a meeting in 2013 during which we collectively copped on to the idea that this forum could be the means to how we build this aspect of the game, promote it and expand it – and MY GOD it worked!
We reached out to past and present players, to coaches, managers, and rugby enthusiasts. Friendships formed, as did working relationships, and what has emerged since then is a strong and colourful web of interactions that made us grow (from a measly 300 likes!), made us better, and made us stronger. It’s no coincidence that women’s and girls’ rugby in the province has boomed simultaneously.

So, it’s particularly galling to see that, in a home World Cup year, in the season that the women’s provincial teams broke through with some fantastic results, that women’s and girls’ rugby in Connacht has been made that little more invisible. The fact that this action was taken without the consultation of any of the Connacht Women’s Rugby Committee is farcical and a poor reflection of the branch’s attitude towards not only women’s and girls’ rugby, but to its volunteers who have often kept the show on the road.

By now, everyone must be bored with the repeated fact that coverage of women’s sports generally is substantially less than coverage of men’s sports. So, to subsume women’s and girls’ rugby under the Club and Community banner is to imply that the job for promoting it separately is done. It’s not; it never really is. We have not reached parity – and even then, parity sometimes isn’t the point. In many cases, just as in this one, the point is that a dedicated resource to this aspect of the sport becomes a network, a meeting place, an archive, a record. And now it’s no more. The fact that the other branches have dedicated women’s pages speaks volumes.

The support for the retention of the page from our brilliant friends and supporters of the game in Connacht has been extremely encouraging. There have been many calls to start a new women’s and girls’ rugby page. However, should you have correctly identified the need and desire among thousands of people for a dedicated resource to promote women’s and girls’ rugby, they would have started their own Club and Community resource. A splinter page, started from scratch, just doesn’t seem viable or, if I’m honest, fair. We already built our Facebook family from scratch – that work has already been done and, now, negated.

It’s not an exaggeration to say there is a huge group of past and present players, as well as supporters, that are genuinely hurting. And it certainly isn’t an exaggeration to say this was more than a Facebook page, and that this issue is bigger than “brand integrity”.

Oh, and Happy International Women’s Day!

I posted the following last night on the newly named page as I truly feel it's a retrograde step, especially as the other 3 provinces have no problem giving Women's Rugby an identity.
Protest posts yesterday were all removed- hoping reason will prevail and the Club and Community section gets its own page.

'Very disappointed with Connacht Rugby- this was the Women's Rugby page. Overnight it hijacked and turned into the everything but the professional page. Television has finally seen fit to screen all the Womens 6 Nations games; August sees Ireland hosting the Womens Rugby World Cup; at a time when Womens Rugby is being appreciated by a wide audience, girls are aspiring to play the oval game, Connacht Rugby has decided that instead of encouraging and promoting womens rugby, it's time to bury its social profile. Check your provincial colleagues Connacht Rugby- Leinster Womens Rugby, Munster Womens Rugby and Ulster Womens Rugby pages are all standing proudly independent under their Provincial banner. C’mon Connacht- remember when you were disappearing and people cared enough to protest. Let us follow Mul and the lads on one page, and Alison and the girls on the other, as we have been doing.'

Very ironic (and sad), given today is International Woman's Day

This isn't heresay or anything like that. The people that had ran the page on a volunteer basis are incredibly upset by the whole thing as they have put in a lot of time and effort raising the profile of the women's game. There doesn't seem to be any logical reason for this as even the other provinces women's teams have dedicated social media outlets.

I'm not one for wild rumours seapoint I can assure you this is true

sea_point wrote:

connemara man wrote: If you haven't seen it today or yesterday the Connacht branch have taken over the Connacht women's Facebook page and have changed it to clubs and communities with the women bundled in there. I've posted on it how ridiculous that is if people herr could either unfollow or register some sort of annoyance that'd be cool.

They put a lot of work in to getting a following for it to be hijacked is ridiculous

Folks unless you have the facts behind the change, I'd lay off throwing up accusations on the FB Page. It may very well have been that Connacht Rugby took over the page at the request of the Women's Rugby group as they didn't have the resources to do it justice.

I'm not saying that is definitely the case, but it could easily be...!

Seen what connamara man is talking about.
Sea point, hsve look on the page, the facts are there (unless deleted in last hour)
It was a great page to keep updated with women rugby but taken over now without consulting those who put in the great hard work.
There is even posts there from current connacht and Ireland player, disagreeing with the takeover!
Were the branch to lazy to set up there own page or did they want to steal the 2000+ followers of the women's rugby