Buttimer scores four tries as Munster ease to win over Leinster

Beth Buttimer starred with four tries as Munster handed Leinster a 39-19 beating on the Vodafone Women’s Interprovincial Championship’s opening day.

Closing in on her first Ireland senior cap with the WXV Global Series starting next month, Buttimer made sure to put her best foot forward at Virgin Media Park.

The Tipperary native and Ireland Under-21 hooker was the obvious player-of-the-match choice in an abrasive Munster pack that included debutant flanker Grace Moore.

Matt Brown’s defending champions led 15-7 at half-time, crossing early through sparky 20-year-old Buttimer, who claimed a first-half brace, and Alana McInerney.

While Erin King and Eve Higgins were amongst six debutants in Leinster’s squad, the visitors struggled with their execution, but new captain Sarah Delaney’s 27th-minute maul score lifted them.

As they sought to avenge two defeats from last season, Sana Govender’s first game in charge of Leinster was not going to plan, as tries from Eilís Cahill and Buttimer opened up a 20-point gap by the hour mark.

This was even with Munster losing Aoife Corey to the bin sin. King and replacement Hannah Wilson mustered final-quarter tries, but the two-in-a-row hopefuls always had an answer.

Former Leinster winger Katie Corrigan capitalised on Linda Djougang’s yellow card to race over on her Munster debut, and Buttimer burrowed out right at the death to make it a seven-try victory.

Brown’s charges, who host Ulster in Cork next week, look the team to beat again, although Leinster, who entertain Connacht in round 2, will hope to meet them again in the August 29th final.