Nicole Cronin and the art of reinvention

The Irish out-half is learning on the job in her new role with the national squad

Nicole Cronin: "We have to appreciate that five other teams in this Six Nations have another goal. Their goal is to go to the World Cup and do well. They’ve qualified and we haven’t, so our goal is to be in a pretty good situation come the start of next year."

In Nicole Cronin’s own words, she’s “in the hot seat” now and wants to hold on to it, even if the onerous new role she’s filling is one to which she initially didn’t warm.

The pint-sized Irish fly-half is only five foot tall, weighs less than eight stone and, at 29, still looks young enough to have to bring her ID on nights out.

But she jokes that she would have been “happy to have been at prop” last Saturday, such was her delight at returning to the green jersey after a two-year absence.

The UL Bohemian’s star is the first to admit that switching positions from scrum-half to out-half hasn’t sat entirely easily.

“I’ve always been a scrum-half. We were getting prepared for the provincial season with Munster about eight months ago when it first happened. Niamh Briggs and Matt Brown [Munster head coach] asked if I’d throw my hat in, play at 10 in training, and they seemed to think it worked. I wasn’t overly impressed with it at the start to be honest. It’s good, but it's difficult! ” Doing it at international level - “learning on the fly’ as she candidly admits – makes it even tougher but “there are plenty of people around me showing me the way. I still think I have a long way to go but I’m there and I’m in the hot seat.

“You need to be quicker in your judgement of what to do but it’s really enjoyable, playing try-line to try-line as opposed to playing touchline to touchline,” she observes.

“You have an opportunity to go forward and you can see things. You can have a bit of a break, put someone through a hole. At nine sometimes you get lost in the passing because that’s what you’re there to do. I like to explore a little bit. ” 

She’s certainly not short of advisors, not least her long-time mentor Briggs (assistant coach with Munster and Ireland) and her first-cousins Sean and Neil, both rugby professionals.

“I speak to Neil a little bit more than Sean. I’m not too sure I need a hooker’s mentality in my position, ” Cronin quips.

New Irish manager Greg McWilliams clearly has no qualms about giving the chippy Limerick woman such an onerous role in his new-look half-back pairing.

With Ireland facing the might of the marauding French pack in Toulouse today (2:15) he has talked of the need for his players to ‘protect each other on the battle ground’ and has firmly placed huge faith in his little general.

“She has the all the attributes of a ten in my opinion, ” he says. “Now I want her to trust herself. She is well able to get in there and boss people around. So that’s the focus, to be in that control spot.

“I thought she did great, ” he said of Cronin’s performance against Wales where her place-kicking already looked impressive.

“Your leaders – your 10s, nines, midfield players - they need to have certain amount of control and give faith and confidence to others around them. Nicole started great and this is another opportunity to continue that leadership. ” 

McWilliams is a big admirer of her all-round football skills which were honed also on the soccer pitch.

Twelve years ago Cronin was part of the Republic of Ireland U19 team looking to make the European Championships, a squad that also included future Louth gaelic star Katie Flood.

“I played both rugby and soccer (with Annacotty) growing up and got to a position where you kind of had to make a choice. It just wasn’t feasible because there were opportunities knocking from both sides,” she explains.

“At the time soccer was where I wanted to go. I was tipping away, got involved with Ireland underage and a video of that competition (Euro qualifiers) in Croatia that time obviously made its way to America. I went to Kansas (Hutchinson Community College) but the coach there was from Cork so I think he was keeping an eye on me.” 

She’d flown the coop before the summer ended, leaving her parents to collect her Leaving Cert results, and spent almost three years on soccer scholarship in America.

“I had an amazing time but I just ended up falling out of love with soccer, it was nothing to do with the States. For some reason or other I came to what I’d call a full stop. I had a year left in my degree but I came home one summer and was just like ‘it’s not for me anymore’. I still think it was the right decision.” 

What has given her much greater regret was losing her international spot in recent seasons.

Last weekend’s 17th cap was her first appearance since replacing Kathryn Dane against England in February 2020 and she’s not too proud to admit she struggled badly with being dropped.

“It was incredibly difficult. I had conversations with coaches and they had their opinions. It was just a case of going away, working on your game, albeit I didn’t know that I’d be moving position at that stage. I went away and worked on what I was told to work on.

“It hurt but I think it only led to having probably one of my best seasons with Munster and Bohs. The whole aim was to get back in here. I wanted to see a green jersey again because I didn’t want it to be the way it finished,” she reveals.

Do any of those soccer skills transfer?

“I never really thought soccer and rugby would work together but I think it does at out-half, it helps with how flat I can be or not be at times. It’s not too much different to getting the ball into your feet in the middle of the park in soccer and looking to turn out. ” 

Also helping her transition is the fact that Stacey Flood, Ireland’s previous out-half has been shifted to inside centre, giving Ireland the two play-maker option that is vital for a more expansive game.

“It’s incredibly enjoyable because Stacey’s a left-footer as well so it gives us both options. We have a play-maker on both sides of the ball now so if you’re in a position that you’re not getting around the corner for whatever reason then maybe Stacey steps in. She does a mighty job, ” she says, pointing out that veteran full-back Eimear Considine is another great play-maker.

Flood and Considine, both with strong gaelic football backgrounds, also add decent positional kicking options and Ireland could have to put boot to ball a lot more today to keep the dazzling French second row on the back foot.

“We learned some lessons last weekend in trying to play too much ball in the red zones. No one wants to be messing around with a ball on your own 5 metre line. We have a couple of variations but how France set up will dictate what we do.

“For me it will be very much a case of talking to Nichola (Fryday, captain) and seeing what’s on. It’s not a case that we’ll just throw it up and lash it down the park,” Cronin insists.

She chuckles when revealing that Linda Djougang, fluent in French and playing her club rugby with AS Romagnat (Clermont), has taught her teammates a few useful ‘mots’ to try to bamboozle today’s opposition.

But like everyone else involved Cronin accepts it could be a while before this new-look, new-style Ireland side yields results.

“We have to appreciate that five other teams in this Six Nations have another goal. Their goal is to go to the World Cup and do well. They’ve qualified and we haven’t, so our goal is to be in a pretty good situation come the start of next year.

“That’s not to say we’re not targeting this year but we just have to be very realistic about what to expect from different teams going to a World Cup.

“It's not just a new group of players, it’s also a new management. The pressure (from the public) will build, everyone wants to win, we’re not naïve to that. This is going to take time but there’s something nice growing in this group,” she says.

“We’re just asking for some patience. ”