Lights out for irish at ashbourne

The lights went out for Ireland's women at Ashbourne tonight in the Six Nations tie against France as the hosts slumped to a five-point defeat when they went down (5-10) in a memorable game.

The memorable part applies more to the fact that the lights actually did go out about a minute into the second-half after the teams had turned over scoreless at the interval.

With Marie Louise Reilly starting and Jackie Shiels on the bench, there was great Meath interest in this game, but the stop-start nature of the second-half certainly didn't help the hosts.

After the first 'lights out' the teams came back again and got going but the lights went out a second time -  plans were in place to move to the adjacent pitch when the lights came on again and the second-half resumed for a third time.

Ireland took the lead with an unconverted try but the French finished strongest and took the laurels on a 10-5 scoreline.

Meath Chronicle reporter Jimmy Geoghegan will have all the details in Tuesday's Meath Chronicle - including the low down on the illuminations?