‘A watershed moment for Irish sport’
It says it all.
No-one predicted the standard of play that Philip Doyle’s players dished out to New Zealand in a Parisian suburb on Tuesday, only themselves.
In beating the four-time World Cup champions (17-14), they laid bare their all — their passion, determination and will to win. Even more so, their unrelenting self-belief.
Only they and the backroom staff know how far they had to go to pull off the biggest heist in Irish rugby.
The journey to this point, however, has possibly been forgotten by Irish sports fans, swept away in the euphoria of a proud rugby nation’s first ever win over the southern hemisphere side.
For Doyle and his elder players, however, they remember only too well where it began, with the likes of Lynne Cantwell, Fiona Coghlan and the recently retired Joy Neville having to bum lifts to make training in Dublin and find their own accommodation in the early days.
Cantwell, in playing in her fourth World Cup, remembers losing three of their four games in Barcelona in 2002 — the heaviest of which was to Canada, 57-0. But that was nothing compared to the 79-0 trouncing against England months earlier in the Six Nations in Worcester.
By 2004 they had progressed to being the curtain-raiser to the men’s Six Nations game in Twickenham. Former international Rosie Foley still recounts the tale. It was to be a proud day for the Munster star, watching her brother, Anthony, win his 50th international cap. But, with no tickets allocated, she and her team-mates watched the game in a pub around the corner from the Stoop with their opponents.
In 2006, present-day squad member, Laura Guest, remembers paying for their gear out of their own pockets at the World Cup in Edmonton, Canada.
Did they complain? No.
By 2012, things had improved having jumped to seventh in the World Rankings. But, on the eve of playing France away in the Six Nations, they were forced to take an overnight train from Paris to Pau given that the coach they’d rented to take them to the train station in Paris got stuck in traffic.
Plan B it was then.
This time around, the financial support was bang on for their arrival at the 2014 World Cup in Marcoussis.
Winning a Grand Slam in 2013, however, would do that.
RTÉ came on board when history beckoned and broadcast its first ever international women’s rugby game, when Coghlan’s side denied Italy in a mud bath on the outskirts of Milan to lift the trophy.
The players’ take was that they needed to make history to be noticed, and they did. But, this spring they relinquished their title to the World Cup hosts’ France, and it hurt.
Playing at the Aviva Stadium eased the pain somewhat, as did the hype of playing in Twickenham on live television, but as much as this bunch are acutely aware of the need to promote their sport, and women’s sport, it always goes back to setting standards.
In the aftermath of Tuesdays’s colossal win, Coghlan said she never had any doubt they’d beat New Zealand. Her belief unbreakable.
The bar is now the highest it’s ever been, and the expectation of making it to the final four has not yet been realised. The door is open, but a win over Kazakhstan on Saturday (live on TG4, noon) should earn them a semi-final place next Wednesday in Stade Jean Bouin — the home of Top 14 side Stade Francais.
Should they do it, it’ll be yet another chapter in the history books.
But, on reflection, the greatest thing about this watershed in Irish sport, isn’t the result against the Kiwis, nor the journey. It’s about how those travelling it have carried themselves.
Quality means doing the right thing when no one was looking, Henry Ford once said.
The Irish women’s rugby team have been doing it for years, always with class, always with grace. It’s just now, the world is watching.
Many of Ireland’s starting 15 against New Zealand on Tuesday were late to the game of rugby.
For a start, Nora Stapleton only took up the sport at the age of 25 and won her first international cap a year later, becoming the first Donegal woman to do so.
Stapleton had previously played ladies’ football and won an Intermediate All-Ireland title with Donegal in 2010. Remarkably, she came on as a sub at the same time Niamh Briggs entered the field of play in Croke Park for Waterford — both ending up marking each other.
Winger Alison Miller is also a former inter-county ladies’ footballer having won a Leinster senior title with Laois in 2007, before taking up rugby in college at Waterford IT. Prior to that, she had been a 400m relay runner with St Abban’s AC in Portlaoise.
Jenny Murphy is another who has plied her trade at a high level in another code. A good friend of Katie Taylor, the Leinster star never took up boxing, but she did play top flight domestic soccer with National League winners Peamount United.
Jackie Shiels (Meath) and Siobhán Fleming (Kerry) also played ladies’ football at the highest level before making the switch, while Grace Davitt was an accomplished hockey player.
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