Irish started the season on the front foot on Saturday, securing their first ever appearance on the podium with a 3rd place finish at Stadion Buschallee.

Husinga racing away to score against Flensburg-Lübeck — **Husinga** racing away to score against Flensburg-Lübeck

The group phase saw Irish first taking on perennial rivals BSV92 in a classic game of two halves. In the first half the team struggled to find their rhythm and, whilst strong defensively, struggled to create chances going forward in a series of contact heavy energy sapping phases. A combative individual try from captain Hirschberg saw Irish just nose ahead at the half 5–0. The second half saw a much improved performance, with the players settling into their attacking system and starving BSV of any attacking opportunities. Well worked tries from speedster Huisinga and debutant Slobin secured a 17–0 victory after gaps started to form in the BSV line.

The first half of game 2 against Flensburg-Lübeck was played under a downpour of sudden heavy rain, limiting the width either team could play with. Both teams struggled to put together consistent attacks in the difficult conditions; instead, both teams profited in defense from mistakes of the other team, pouncing on dropped balls or ruck turnovers. Turnovers by Dennin and Slobin lead to breakaways for Hirschberg, who scored a brace to keep the game open at 10–10 at the break. The rain eased in the second half and the handling noticeably improved as well as the defensive positioning from the team. Dennin continued to pull the strings in the centre of the field, opening first a run to the line on the right wing for Huisinga who finished under the sticks and then a cute inside ball leading to a try for Jarsale on the left wing. At the whistle, Irish took away a deserved 22–10 victory.

Those wins saw Irish move into the Semifinals, where they were drawn against USV Potsdam—champions of the division from the last full season in 2019. Good defensive pressure early on lead to an intercept try for Slobin, but in attack the team struggled to break down a well organised Potsdam defense and were repeatedly punished for their inaccuracies. Potsdam crossed the whitewash multiple times, racking up 7 tries in total by the end to show their class at this level—not withstanding excellent individual tackling from the girls in green—and their ability to manipulate defenses to create opportunities for themselves.

The final game of the day saw the team swap into the Jerseys of their SG partners BSC and take on the women of Hamburger RC in the bronze medal match. The teams were fairly well-matched, and Hamburg proved initially difficult for the team to break down. Eventually a great slanting run by Huttunen wrong-footed 3 Hamburger players and, although she was tackled just short of the line, Huisinga was on hand to pick up and dot down. Hamburg answered almost immediately, scoring nearly directly from kickoff after some miscommunication in defense from Irish. In response, Irish moved the ball well from side to side and, after Hamburg failed to drift, Huisinga was able to dot down in the corner thanks to some good interplay up the right wing to take Irish in ahead at half-time 10–5. The second half saw Irish initially stretch their lead, with Hirschberg crossing after Murtagh and Dennin broke the line on the opposite wing. Then in answer, HRC scored first a breakaway from a series of offloads and—worse—scored from a quick tap penalty with the fatigued Irish players struggling to react in time, taking the lead at 17-15 with just 2 minutes remaining. With HRC being given a scrum inside their 22 after an Irish fumble it looked like the game would be put to bed, instead an excellent shove from the forwards saw HRC knock on as they tried to retrieve the ball from the scrummage. Now with possession, the backs executed a simple outside loop under extreme pressure to put debutant Marciniak through, to score the winning try just as time expired. Irish took the win and the Bronze medal, 20–17.