Ireland's women came agonizingly close to a historical Six Nations victory over Wales at Thomond Park on Saturday night.

The girls in green have never won a Championship game, but deserved to break their duck wtih a passionate performance on a bitterly cold Limerick evening.

Ireland could say that they were impeded with a few raw decisions one of which denied them a penalty try.

But too often, Ireland turned over possession after making ground, and lost all momentum.

The Irish took a deserved early lead with a penalty from Ulster captain Rachel Reid.

But Wales quickly levelled through an equalising strike by fly-half Awen Thomas.

Disaster struck the home side early in the second quarter when they got turned over on the visiting ''22''.

Scant reward

Wales opened out to exploit an overlap down the right which lead to a try for winger Claire Flowers converted by Thomas.

Then came the sustained siege on the Welsh line, but Ireland's scant reward for prolonged pressure was Reid's second penalty, making it 6-10 at the break.

Thomas extended the visitors lead with another penalty early in the second period.

Reid soon replied, taking her international points tally past 50 in the process, but a scoreless last half hour condemned the gallant girls in green to defeat.

Ireland: SJ Belton (UL Bohs); S Fleming (Cooke, capt), P Kelly (UL Bohs), R Boyd (Cooke), F Neary (Waterloo); N Milne (Worcester), K Eagleson (Cooke); M Coulter (Blackrock), E Collins (UL Bohs), E Coen (Highfield), A-M McAllister (Blackrock), M Quirke (UL Bohs), R Reid (Cooke), M O'Loughlin (UL Bohs), F Steed (Shannon). Replacements: R Tucker (Shannon), R Howell, L Beamish (both UL Bohs); G McAllister (Cooke), J Lonergan, R Foley (both Shannon), B Montgomery (Ripon).