Two Donegal players made their Republic of Ireland senior debuts last night

AMBER BARRETT AND Roma McLaughlin earned their first senior caps for the Republic of Ireland Women’s National Team in Wales last night.

Wales 0-0 Republic of Ireland

McLaughlin and Barrett both came off the substitutes’ bench in the scoreless draw, although Barrett was later withdrawn.

Milford native Barrett (pictured above) is part of the Donegal ladies panel who won the Ulster SFC last year and the Lidl Ladies Division 2 this year. She played for the side managed by Michael Naughton on the All-Ireland quarter-final loss against Dublin on Saturday in Longford. Like McLaughlin, Barrett plays for Peamount United FC.

McLaughlin (pictured above), from Greencastle,  was part of the Ireland Women’s Under 17 squad for the 2015 Uefa European Championships in Iceland and all except five in the squad have played in the Continental Tyres Women’s National League.

A young Ireland squad has travelled to Wales for a training camp and two challenge matches, the first of which was played at Newport’s Rodney Parade last night.

The side included five debutants, Niamh Prior, Tiegan Ruddy, McLaughlin, Leanne Kiernan and Barrett as Ronan looks to use the training camp to assess young and home-based talent.

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Ireland started the stronger of the two sides but were dealt a blow with 27 minutes on the clock as the impressive 17-year old Kiernan was forced off after a clash of heads with Kylie Davies.

From the resulting free-kick, Stephanie Roche almost handed Ireland the lead as she curled her effort over the wall but Welsh goalkeeper Claire Skinner was at full stretch to deny her.

Wales dominated much of the second-half as Kayleigh Davies had the ball in the back of the Irish net but it was ruled out for offside as the youthful Ireland side remained resolute until the final whistle.

Ronan was quick to praise her side following the performance, in particular, Peamount’s 16-year old Ruddy who impressed in defence in her first appearance for the national side.

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Ronan said: “The team played really well tonight.  We had a number of new faces in the starting line-up, including two players who haven’t played at Under-19 level yet, so I’m delighted with how it all went”.

“There was a very high tempo to our game, particularly in the first half, with Leanne’s Kiernan’s pace up front causing all sorts of problems for the Welshdefence.  However, the fact I made a number of substitutes after the break and with some of the younger players running out of steam in the 2nd half, we became slightly more defensive later on.

“I only included six senior players in the starting line-up so for the young and home-based players to stand up against the test of a full-strength Welsh side, who have been together in camp since last Monday, bodes really well for the future.

“Tiegan Ruddy, just 16-years old, really impressed at centre-half with Karen Duggan alongside her leading by example. But in truth, there were very strong performances all over the pitch.”

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Ireland face Wales tomorrow in another challenge match, kick-off 11am, and Ronan says she will rotate the squad to make sure everyone gets minutes on the pitch.

Ronan continued: “I’ll be looking to rotate the side for tomorrow’s game and make sure everyone in the squad gets valuable minutes on the pitch.

“It has been a really encouraging start to the camp and hopefully that will continue into tomorrow’s game which will give other players the chance to impress.”

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Wales: Skinner, Roberts, Evans, James, Ingle (c), Davies, Harding, Rowe, Green, Fishlock, Fletcher. Subs:O’Sullivan (GK), Jones, Ladd, Dykes, Lawrence, Ward, Estcourt, Lloyd.

Republic of Ireland: G Moloney, Perry, Duggan (c), Berrill, Kiernan (Barrett 25, Murray 46)), Russell (McLaughlin 68), Roche, McCabe, Deburca, Ruddy, Beckett. Subs: Kavanagh, Fox, McLaughlin, Doyle, Noonan, Reid-Burke, Prior, C Moloney.