[caption id="attachment_66748" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="The Wexford captain Colleen Atkinson with the All Ireland intermediate trophy after her team's win over Antrim."]
WEXFORD have proven themselves as very much the dominant force in camogie by recording a magnificent All-Ireland double at Croke Park on Sunday.
Inspired by skipper Ursula Jacob, they defeated Galway by 2-7 to 1-8 to capture the senior title for the second successive year, while they also got the better of Antrim by 2-12 to 0-15 to capture the intermediate crown.
The junior title went to neighbors Waterford who defeated Down by 2-1 to 1-13 after being beaten in the final for the previous two years. Overall, however, the main plaudits went to Wexford.
In defeating Galway, the Slaney siders were capturing their first senior two-in-row since the sixties. But they had to fight all the way to get the better of a battling Galway outfit.
Galway, in fact, led by three points with 10 minutes remaining. Their goalscorer Tara Rutledge very nearly added to that advantage before Wexford broke to secure the crucial goal.
Unsurprisingly, it was Jacob who was responsible. She caught Josie Dwyer's high ball before rifling a shot into the Galway net to bring her side level.
Jacob, whose two brothers play for the Wexford hurling side and whose father Mick is a county legend, then won the game for her county by firing over two more points, one from a free.
Poor Galway could hardly believe it. Therese Maher gave a tremendous display at centre-back and they could quite easily have been even further ahead had they made better use of their opportunities.
Ultimately though they couldn't quite cope with Jacob who finished with 1-5, including her side's last 1-3. She said: "We knew we hadn't performed at our best in the first half but we also knew there was a good second-half display in us."
A bitterly disappointed Galway manager Noel Finn commented: " We just didn't get the breaks. When we were three up we had the chance to go further ahead but we missed those chances. Fair play to Wexford, they showed great resilience."
