The IRFU have announced that for the first time ever, the PwC U18 Women's Interprovincial Championship will run side-by-side with the senior women's competition. Not only is this announcement a massive boost for the development of underage women's rugby in Ireland but will also deliver three epic double-header games. We've all the info on where and when the PwC U18 Women's Interprovincials will take place right here.
With the first round just two weeks away, the future stars of Irish Rugby will be facing off in five rounds of interprovincial action, with the history-steeped Musgrave Park and Energia Park Donnybrook both playing host to U18-Senior double-headers for the first time ever.
The opening three including the double-headers are set to run from the 19th of August to the 2nd of September, while both the semi-finals and final will be played in February.
With all the action kicking off on August 19th, we've all the PwC Women's U18 Interprovincial Championship fixtures below as well as just how important this move is for the development of Women's rugby on these shores.
PwC U18 Women's Rugby Championship Fixtures
Both games in the opening round of action will be double headers as Munster take on Connacht at 12pm before the seniors clash later that day while Leinster will take on Ulster at 3pm after their senior squads have already played in Energia Park. The full set of fixtures are:
Round 1, Saturday, 19 August
- Munster v Connacht, Musgrave Park, 12pm
- Leinster v Ulster, Energia Park, 3pm
Round 2, Saturday 26 August
- Connacht v Ulster, Corinthians RFC, 12pm
- Leinster v Munster, Energia Park, 2pm
Round 3, Saturday 2 September
- Ulster v Munster, Ballymena RFC, 12pm
- Connacht v Leinster, Corinthians RFC, 2pm
Speaking ahead of the competition and after announcing this major development in Irish Rugby, Amanda Greensmith the IRFU's Women's Development Manager was lauding the significance of this move.
We are excited to be launching the fixtures for the PwC Women’s U18 Interprovincial Championship, which continues to evolve into an important development platform in our Women’s pathway structure.
It is important we positioned the competition alongside the Women’s Championship in the season calendar, and the addition of double-header match days at Energia Park and Musgrave Park to the schedule is the result of lots of hard work from all stakeholders involved.
Who'll reign victorious come February only time will tell, but one thing's for certain these will be three epic games of rugby with very little separating these sides.
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