Sinatra's 'My Way' inspiring Munster star Alana McInerney

Alana McInerney is determined to do things her way as she takes the Vodafone Women's Interprovincial Championship by storm.

The winger is one of the breakthrough stars of the series so far, adding a late match-clinching try against Leinster last weekend to a hat-trick against Ulster in round one.

An AIL league winner with UL Bohs earlier this year, McInerney comes from a "football family" in Ennis.

Her father Francis was the captain of the Clare team that pulled of one of the biggest shocks in GAA history when they beat Kerry in the 1992 Munster final – the game that gave dairy farmers a huge job of work on the following Tuesday.

Brother Mark lines out for the current crop of Banner footballers but once Alana found rugby, there was no turning back.

"I only really started in 2017, I wasn’t exposed to rugby before that," the 23-year-old tells RTÉ Sport.

"Growing up, I never really had a dream of playing for Munster or playing for Ireland 'cos rugby wasn’t really on my radar.

"My family is a football family, my dad played for Clare and my brother plays for Clare so I’d just be football mad.

"Thank God, one of my friends, Aoife, said Ennis RFC were starting up a girls’ team in 2017 and we said it would be a good pre-season for the football but once I started rugby it overtook the football."

McInerney, who graduates from UL on Monday with a degree in Industrial Biochemistry, adapted and quickly moved through the ranks.

She trained with the Ireland senior side back in 2021, has been in Sevens camps and featured for the Clovers in the combined provinces competitions.

She puts her form this season down to discipline and being in the right place at the right time. But she’s being modest.

"I just stood out by the wing, all the forwards and