Tuite eager for Wafer's return after role as back row stopgap

Ireland got their World Cup campaign up and running with a victory on Sunday.

Tue, 26 Aug, 2025 - 07:00

Brendan O'Brien

Ireland still had cards to play when their pack was deprived of key players going into this Rugby World Cup.

By the time the squad arrived in England earlier this month, Scott Bemand had lost back-up tighthead Christy Haney, key second-row Dorothy Wall, and back row and 2024 world breakthrough player of the year Erin King to injury.

All for the duration of the tournament.

Aoife Wafer, voted the best player across the entire 2025 Six Nations, had been left at home in Dublin where she was rehabbing a knee injury that kept her sidelined through the warm-ups and out of Sunday’s opener against Japan in Northampton.

Wafer joined the party in time for the game at Franklin’s Gardens, but she is still a doubt for next week’s follow-up against Spain at the same ground. All told, then, that added up to a significant hole in the resources available to the head coach.

Haney’s loss was supplanted by the call-up of former England prop Ellena Perry only weeks before the first game was played, and that same left-field thinking saw Fiona Tuite, a lock, named at blindside flanker against the Japanese.

“Delighted to get the start at six,” said Tuite. “We always talk about the back five rather than a front five and a back three. So little bit of change there. A four-man [lineout] didn't go exactly to plan as we wanted, but we fixed it.

“We went back to our basics, and we're pretty happy then from there.” This was big for Tuite. Not just a first run at a World Cup but a new role. Nerves were expected and duly arrived as she sat down to breakfast at 6.30am due to the noon kickoff and then filled in more time with more food before making for the stadium.

Like the rest of the players, she had been kept abreast of the ranks of family, friends and other green-clad supporters that made their way over the Irish Sea on flights that morning and the night before. Expectation mingled with excitement.

Her own migration brought her a try courtesy of a sublime midfield break by Eve Higgins but it stands to reason that Ireland would be stronger again when Wafer returns and the versatile Ulster player returns to more familiar ground at second row.

“Happy to have her back,” said Tuite. “Aoife is unbelievable. I just hope her rehab is continuing to go as well as it is. We want her back on pitch. If that means I’ve to maybe push [back onto] the bench, back into the second row, who knows?

“We don't know what's to come in the next couple of weeks but it's so great to have her back. She's working so hard. She landed in the middle of our jersey presentation [on Saturday] and there were smiles on everyone's faces.

“It's so good to have her back in and seeing her doing so well. She adds so much to us as a group as well. I don't really mind, I'm just so happy to see her back and she's working so hard. And if we can get someone like Aoife back on the pitch happy days.”

Wafer wasn’t the only familiar face making a welcome visit.

Wall was in the dressing-room after the 42-14 defeat of Japan having watched the game from the press box where she was on commentary duty and Tuite has praised the support the squad has received from her and others who didn’t make the cut.

Amee-Leigh Costigan said much the same after the game, highlighting the support that has come the way of the back three players from peers like Katie Corrigan and Vicky Elmes-Kinlan who have been on interpro duties with their provinces in recent weeks.

Wall previewed this tournament two weeks ago for RTÉ and was asked for a player to watch in this Irish squad. She chose Brittany Hogan, who reacted emotionally when told of that in the days after, and then produced a player of the match display first up.

“Brittany always class,” said Tuite who was the only starting back row to play all 80 minutes on Sunday. “She's an absolute workhorse. Training sessions, everything, the work she does off pitch as well.

“She's so important for us as a team but she's class the way she carries that ball, her defensive work and just her work rate. She's genuinely world-class. She's someone we all aspire to, and we really look up to her as a leader now as well.”