THE WOMEN’S ALL-Ireland League gets underway next weekend and it will be as important as ever in giving promising young players exposure as they attempt to move through the pathway towards the senior national team.
But the IRFU is keen to add more layers to that pathway in the union’s drive to ensure female players are better prepared to push into Test rugby earlier.
A new element of that drive is the ‘emerging talent day’ at the National Sports Campus in Abbottstown today, where a group of the most talented U18 and U23 players in the country have assembled for an intense day of training and education.
21 players, eight of whom are U18s, were selected for the one-day camp that will involve two pitch sessions under Ireland Women head coach Adam Griggs, as well as educational workshops on nutrition, strength and conditioning, and recovery.
“We wanted to give these players a high-performance environment, forcing them to make decisions a lot quicker,” said Griggs of what the pitch sessions at the ‘talent day’ will be about.
“They’re not going to be the biggest and the best in this environment, as they might be with their clubs, so it develops that game awareness and decision-making at an earlier age, so that when they do make that step up, it’s not as overwhelming for them.”
The signs of growth at the grassroots of the female rugby pathway have been encouraging in recent times, with the ‘Give it a Try’ campaign enjoying success and the ‘GX7s’ competition bringing 7s rugby to schools that had never played the sport before.
The GX7s has fed into the U18 Girls Inter-provincial 7s competition and that in turn has helped to produce an Ireland U18 Women’s 7s squad that won the inaugural Home Nations 7s in July, when they were coached by Griggs.
Many of the girls involved that Ireland team also featured in the U18 Inter-provincial 15s Championship that concluded last weekend with a Connacht title success.
Some products of the U18 inter-pros are now starting to feed into the senior women’s game too, with Munster including five of the province’s U18 side from last year in their squad for the recent senior inter-pros.
“What we’re seeing in the inter-provincials is younger players coming through,” says Griggs. “They’ve almost got as much playing age as some of the older players now because the systems that are coming in at grassroots are getting results.
“Some of the girls have had a few years of the GX7s in school and they’re making a step up, so it’s bringing the age bracket down.
“That Connacht team that won the U18 inter-pros last weekend had five or six of the girls that were involved in the Home Nations 7s.
“I got my eyes opened to it over the summer and we just thought, ‘Where do these girls go after they’ve played a summer of international 7s?’ They played the inter-pros, but then there’s not too much more for them at this level.”
That’s where the ‘emerging talent day’ fits into the picture, with Griggs also bringing in the best U23 talent from around the country – some of whom didn’t get much game time during the women’s inter-pros.
Today’s event in Abbottstown is essentially a pilot project but in an ideal world, Griggs would love to “bring a group of players like this together five or six times a year to really upskill them and keep them developing.”
While 7s has become an important pathway for women’s rugby in Ireland, Griggs is also keen to ensure that the IQ Rugby branch of the IRFU that is doing fine work in the men’s game yields players for the women’s game too.
Last month, Griggs oversaw two ‘open trial’ days in England in a bid to identify Irish-qualified players at senior level.
Ireland internationals Claire Molloy, Cliodhna Moloney, Anna Caplice and Leah Lyons are currently playing in the English Premier 15s, which Griggs is supportive of, but he and his coaches managed to find more IQ talent during those trial days.
“We have players over there who are eligible and the fact is that them playing in the Premiership is probably a level above some of our rugby. They’re competing in that week-in, week-out against other international players – English, French and Scottish internationals.
“We thought, ‘Let’s see who else is around that we may not know of and let’s cast our net a little bit wider.’
“There’s no hiding that our depth chart is probably a little bit lighter than some other nations and that’s another point of doing it – to build up that depth and really help the senior team push along and be competitive.”
The trial days helped Ireland identify five good players and Griggs has been tracking them in the Premier 15s since, taking in footage of games. He reckons we may even see one or two of those IQ players involved in the November Tests.
The focus for today at Abbottstown is on the longer-term future, but Griggs has also been busy plotting for those tough November clashes with the US and England.
“There’s nothing like playing under those circumstances in a tough Test,” says Griggs of the challenge ahead this autumn.
“For semi-professional players who don’t often have that spotlight on them, it adds a huge amount of pressure that we maybe don’t always cope so well with. Putting them through these Tests matches is going to be brilliant for us.”
Players at women’s ‘emerging talent day’:
Judi Bobbett (Blackrock College RFC/Leinster)*
Maggie Boylan (Carrick-on-Suir RFC/Munster)*
Lily Brady (Wesport RFC/Connacht)*
Nicole Carroll (Suttonians RFC/Leinster)
Aimee Clarke (Railway Union RFC/Leinster)
Eimear Corri (Blackrock College RFC/Leinster)
Kathryn Dane (Old Belvedere RFC/Ulster)
Meabh Deely (Ballinasloe RFC/Connacht)*
Sarah Dent (Ballinasloe RFC/Connacht)
Ellie Dillane (NUIG RFC/Connacht)
Linda Djougang (Old Belvedere RFC/Leinster)
Daisy Earle (Railway Union RFC/Leinster)
Lauren Farrell McCabe (Suttonians RFC/Leinster)
Aine Galvin (Ballinasloe RFC/Connacht)*
Neve Jones (Malone RFC/Ulster)
Maeve Liston (Ballyshannon RFC/Ulster)
Siobhan McCarthy (Railway Union RFC/Munster)
Sara O’Gorman (Newport RFC/Munster)*
Beibhinn Parsons (Ballinasloe RFC/Connacht)*
Nicole Purdom (Suttonians RFC/Leinster)
Aoibheann Reilly (Ballinasloe RFC/Connacht)*
* signifies U18 player
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