THERE’S A DRONE flying overhead, recording the potential rugby players being put through their paces, when IRFU performance director David Humphreys turns up to take a look at events.
It’s a fresh, bright Thursday at DCU’s St. Patrick’s Campus in Dublin and a group of 20 young women are doing their best to impress.
This is the second of a series of four combines the IRFU is running around the Irish provinces to identify high-potential athletes from other sports who are keen to get involved in the elite women’s rugby pathway.
They come from diverse sporting backgrounds, including Gaelic football, camogie, basketball, athletics, soccer, hockey, kickboxing, lacrosse, badminton, marathon running, powerlifting, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and ultimate frisbee.
The hope is that the very best of them can rise quickly through the ranks to compete for a place in the Ireland 15s squad for the 2029 World Cup, or for a spot in the Ireland 7s team as they aim to qualify for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
The possibility of competing at the Games is a big draw for many of these athletes, with some of them joking about wanting the Olympics tattoo.
The IRFU has also been keen to highlight that rugby is the only full-time professional team sport for women in Ireland, which is another draw.
Some of the camogie players who took part in Tuesday’s combine in Limerick said they’d have loved the chance to go and play full-time AFL in Australia, which many footballers do, but their sense was that rugby might offer similar possibilities on home soil.
It’s not the first time the IRFU has done something like this, but interest levels have been high given the recent growth of women’s rugby in Ireland and across the rugby world. Last year’s Women’s World Cup set some staggering new records.
There were lots of interesting applicants for the combines, with the IRFU whittling them down to groups of roughly 20 for each event in Limerick, Dublin, Belfast, and Galway.
Tuesday’s combine in Limerick resulted in the union picking out four athletes who they hope can now kick on in rugby, while it’s clear that there is plenty of athletic talent at this one in Dublin.
Most of these women, who range from their late teens into their 20s, have never played rugby before, with a couple having only recently started in the club game.
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The morning begins with a medical check-up and then the athletes are into the gym, where they warm and go through three power output tests; a seated medicine ball throw, a counter movement jump, and a Reactive Strength Index where they have to hop explosively 10 times. All of this is tracked with state-of-the-art gear.
“We didn’t do any strength tests because we just wanted to see how they could express the strength that they have, as opposed to how strong they are,” says Orlaith Curran, the IRFU’s head of athletic performance for women’s 7s and pathway.
“We can make them strong. It’s more their application to it.”
There’s a short break and then everyone reconvenes on the pitch to warm up again before another series of testing.
First, it’s a 10-metre sprint from a standing start to assess acceleration. Next, it’s a swerve-type drill to see how they manage their feet, decelerate, and accelerate again in a tight space, all with a rugby ball in hand.
From there, it’s into a one-on-one tracking drill to see how athletic they are in defensive situations or when trying to beat a defender.
Then there’s an element of contact introduced with a tackle pad, seeing how much punch they can bring into a collision. And finally, they play a two-on-two evasion game, which helps the coaches to get a sense of their spatial awareness and hand-eye coordination.
Everything is videoed for further assessment but the likes of Curran, Ireland 7s head coach James Topping, and IRFU women’s coaching coordinator John McKee can quickly identify the most exciting athletes.
“Our rugby pathway is really strong, but it’s maybe only really taken off in the last 10 or so years, so there’s athletes who have missed that opportunity,” says Topping.
“There’s athletes who maybe are a bit intimidated to go to a rugby club where there’s lots of rules and positions to work out straight away.
“This might give them an opportunity to showcase what their talents are and to put themselves forward, and for us to have a look at them.”
So what is the plausible pathway for someone who impresses at one of these combines?
Topping says the Ireland women’s 7s set-up, which is no longer part of the top-level SVNS series but will continue as a development programme, is an obvious next step because there aren’t as many intricacies in the seven-player code as the 15s game.
But the IRFU isn’t just looking for nimble backs. They want bigger, more powerful athletes who could play in the forwards.
Topping mentions the Women’s AIL, the women’s National Talent Squad, the provincial teams, and even points to the senior Ireland Women 15s squad as possible next steps.
“If somebody shows up really well, then over the Six Nations window, there’s an opportunity there to maybe come and train with some of the extended squad,” says Topping.
This event in Dublin has highlighted some promising athletes, with reports from Limerick positive too. Niamh Briggs and Denis Fogarty ran that session, with further combines to come at Queen’s University Belfast and Dexcom Stadium in Galway next month.
Keeping a close eye on events in DCU is Audrey O’Flynn, a former Ireland 7s international who now works as the IRFU’s high performance project and women’s performance pathway manager.
O’Flynn is a strong sounding board for the young women at the combines because she was a 120-cap Ireland international in hockey before making a switch into rugby in 2014 when the IRFU was on a similar hunt for talented athletes to crossover into 7s.
She had only played some tag rugby before but within just a few months, O’Flynn was making her international debut for Ireland 7s.
“They just threw me into the deep end and it was either sink or swim,” says O’Flynn.
“There were things I felt came to me a lot more easily than others. I didn’t back my passing, but I was pretty happy with everything else. I didn’t like contact when it was outside of games, but when it was game time, the adrenaline kind of takes over, and you just do whatever you need to do to take a player down.”
O’Flynn is a prime example of how quickly an athlete can transition from one sport to another, although it’s clear that the quality of international women’s rugby is growing quicker than ever.
She’s as curious as anyone to see what the IRFU get from these combines. The current Ireland internationals are also in that bracket.
“They’re looking over their shoulders to see what’s coming!” says O’Flynn.
“Some of the girls, the centralised players, were saying, ‘Oh, we can help out in DCU and have a look at what the competition is.’
“So it has sparked some curiosity amongst the group.”
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'There are athletes who have maybe missed that opportunity in rugby'
THERE’S A DRONE flying overhead, recording the potential rugby players being put through their paces, when IRFU performance director David Humphreys turns up to take a look at events.
It’s a fresh, bright Thursday at DCU’s St. Patrick’s Campus in Dublin and a group of 20 young women are doing their best to impress.
This is the second of a series of four combines the IRFU is running around the Irish provinces to identify high-potential athletes from other sports who are keen to get involved in the elite women’s rugby pathway.
They come from diverse sporting backgrounds, including Gaelic football, camogie, basketball, athletics, soccer, hockey, kickboxing, lacrosse, badminton, marathon running, powerlifting, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and ultimate frisbee.
The hope is that the very best of them can rise quickly through the ranks to compete for a place in the Ireland 15s squad for the 2029 World Cup, or for a spot in the Ireland 7s team as they aim to qualify for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
The possibility of competing at the Games is a big draw for many of these athletes, with some of them joking about wanting the Olympics tattoo.
The IRFU has also been keen to highlight that rugby is the only full-time professional team sport for women in Ireland, which is another draw.
Some of the camogie players who took part in Tuesday’s combine in Limerick said they’d have loved the chance to go and play full-time AFL in Australia, which many footballers do, but their sense was that rugby might offer similar possibilities on home soil.
It’s not the first time the IRFU has done something like this, but interest levels have been high given the recent growth of women’s rugby in Ireland and across the rugby world. Last year’s Women’s World Cup set some staggering new records.
There were lots of interesting applicants for the combines, with the IRFU whittling them down to groups of roughly 20 for each event in Limerick, Dublin, Belfast, and Galway.
Tuesday’s combine in Limerick resulted in the union picking out four athletes who they hope can now kick on in rugby, while it’s clear that there is plenty of athletic talent at this one in Dublin.
Most of these women, who range from their late teens into their 20s, have never played rugby before, with a couple having only recently started in the club game.
The morning begins with a medical check-up and then the athletes are into the gym, where they warm and go through three power output tests; a seated medicine ball throw, a counter movement jump, and a Reactive Strength Index where they have to hop explosively 10 times. All of this is tracked with state-of-the-art gear.
“We didn’t do any strength tests because we just wanted to see how they could express the strength that they have, as opposed to how strong they are,” says Orlaith Curran, the IRFU’s head of athletic performance for women’s 7s and pathway.
“We can make them strong. It’s more their application to it.”
There’s a short break and then everyone reconvenes on the pitch to warm up again before another series of testing.
First, it’s a 10-metre sprint from a standing start to assess acceleration. Next, it’s a swerve-type drill to see how they manage their feet, decelerate, and accelerate again in a tight space, all with a rugby ball in hand.
From there, it’s into a one-on-one tracking drill to see how athletic they are in defensive situations or when trying to beat a defender.
Then there’s an element of contact introduced with a tackle pad, seeing how much punch they can bring into a collision. And finally, they play a two-on-two evasion game, which helps the coaches to get a sense of their spatial awareness and hand-eye coordination.
Everything is videoed for further assessment but the likes of Curran, Ireland 7s head coach James Topping, and IRFU women’s coaching coordinator John McKee can quickly identify the most exciting athletes.
“Our rugby pathway is really strong, but it’s maybe only really taken off in the last 10 or so years, so there’s athletes who have missed that opportunity,” says Topping.
“There’s athletes who maybe are a bit intimidated to go to a rugby club where there’s lots of rules and positions to work out straight away.
“This might give them an opportunity to showcase what their talents are and to put themselves forward, and for us to have a look at them.”
So what is the plausible pathway for someone who impresses at one of these combines?
Topping says the Ireland women’s 7s set-up, which is no longer part of the top-level SVNS series but will continue as a development programme, is an obvious next step because there aren’t as many intricacies in the seven-player code as the 15s game.
But the IRFU isn’t just looking for nimble backs. They want bigger, more powerful athletes who could play in the forwards.
Topping mentions the Women’s AIL, the women’s National Talent Squad, the provincial teams, and even points to the senior Ireland Women 15s squad as possible next steps.
“If somebody shows up really well, then over the Six Nations window, there’s an opportunity there to maybe come and train with some of the extended squad,” says Topping.
This event in Dublin has highlighted some promising athletes, with reports from Limerick positive too. Niamh Briggs and Denis Fogarty ran that session, with further combines to come at Queen’s University Belfast and Dexcom Stadium in Galway next month.
Keeping a close eye on events in DCU is Audrey O’Flynn, a former Ireland 7s international who now works as the IRFU’s high performance project and women’s performance pathway manager.
O’Flynn is a strong sounding board for the young women at the combines because she was a 120-cap Ireland international in hockey before making a switch into rugby in 2014 when the IRFU was on a similar hunt for talented athletes to crossover into 7s.
She had only played some tag rugby before but within just a few months, O’Flynn was making her international debut for Ireland 7s.
“They just threw me into the deep end and it was either sink or swim,” says O’Flynn.
“There were things I felt came to me a lot more easily than others. I didn’t back my passing, but I was pretty happy with everything else. I didn’t like contact when it was outside of games, but when it was game time, the adrenaline kind of takes over, and you just do whatever you need to do to take a player down.”
O’Flynn is a prime example of how quickly an athlete can transition from one sport to another, although it’s clear that the quality of international women’s rugby is growing quicker than ever.
She’s as curious as anyone to see what the IRFU get from these combines. The current Ireland internationals are also in that bracket.
“They’re looking over their shoulders to see what’s coming!” says O’Flynn.
“Some of the girls, the centralised players, were saying, ‘Oh, we can help out in DCU and have a look at what the competition is.’
“So it has sparked some curiosity amongst the group.”
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Athletes combine Combines Ireland IRFU Women's Rugby