UL Bohs' drive undimmed as they target three consecutive AIL titles

"I think everyone’s really aware of how tough it is and how hard it is to maintain the standards that we do," said UL Bohs backrow Chloe Pearse

UL Bohs' Chloe Pearse: "We’ve been the hunted this season but we’ll come out here on Sunday and hopefully try to achieve what we set out to do." Pic: Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile

UL Bohemians bid for a third Energia AIL Women’s title in a row at Aviva Stadium on Sunday with their hunger for silverware undiminished, according to captain Chloe Pearse.

After two epic encounters with Railway Union at Irish Rugby HQ on Lansdowne Road in 2024 and 2025, Blackrock College are the Limerick club’s final rivals this weekend with the Dubliners keen to avenge a semi-final defeat to their opponents last season. Yet they will have to work hard to dent Bohs’ determination to retain the trophy they worked so hard to hang onto last season.

It took a last minute try from tighthead prop Eilis Cahill after the team played out from just outside their own 22 to overcome Railway 29-24 12 months ago and back-rower and former Munster captain Chloe Pearse said her side will come into Sunday's showdown with Blackrock with the same resolve they showed a year ago.

“It’s huge. I was looking at the trophy a minute ago and it’s not been done very often, it’s a difficult thing to do,” Pearse said. “There’s some great clubs in this league and some great players who will be trying to stop us on Sunday. We’ve been the hunted this season but we’ll come out here on Sunday and hopefully try to achieve what we set out to do. 

“It is hard to know. We always back ourselves but you come to a final…you even saw here last year we were a play away from losing but we had that belief in ourselves and that’s definitely something we want to have again this year.” 

Reflecting on her club’s achievements over the past two years, Pearse added: “You have to be proud of the effort that’s gone in. It is something to be proud of, to have been here two years ago and have come away with two wins and now to do it again, because it’s tough to keep raising that ceiling and have that competitiveness.

“Sometimes it’s actually the drive that this isn’t normal. Like we had Paul O’Connell in last year at our jersey presentation and he told us, 'this is not normal, what you’re doing to be as competitive’ as we are for so many years.

“So it’s just reminding people of that, not that they need to be reminded. I think everyone’s really aware of how tough it is and how hard it is to maintain the standards that we do. And that’s something we’ll continue to drive (up to the final) and into next year too, regardless of the result because winning it is really special.” 

Bohs opened their title defence with a 21-12 away defeat of Blackrock at Stradbrook, but that was one of only two defeats across the season for the challengers and they closed out the league campaign with a win against the champions in Limerick.

Blackrock captain Hannah O’Connor represented her club in their most recent final appearance in 2022, when they took the title at Railway Union’s expense at Energia Park in Dublin’s Donnybrook and she spoke this week of her envy at missing out on the end of season showpieces since the switch to Aviva Stadium.

“I don’t think there’s any fear of us getting overawed by the occasion,” the Ireland international said. “It was 2022 the last final and we haven’t been in one in the Aviva so you’d definitely be sitting at home watching it with gritted teeth and wondering, 'Will that be us the next year?'

“This season, we’ve made no qualms about it, we said that unless we are in a final we won’t have achieved what we wanted to. So now we’ve achieved our goal of getting here it’s shackles off and we get to put into practice everything that we’ve done this season so far, to have that matchday performance that we’ve been aiming for the whole season and let it loose on the biggest stage of them all.”