Joy Neville can reflect on a job well done at Temple Hill on Saturday, where she became the first female referee to oversee a Divison 1A fixture, taking charge of Cork Con’s 24-17 win over Clontarf.

“Our model is slightly different in that all the other players. All the players we have are students in the university. They start in first year and you hope they stay with UCD RFC for the duration of the degree.  We haven’t really recruited anyone else because you have to be a student to play.”