Switch from sevens no problem for Costigan and co

Plenty of women are following an Olympics with a World Cup, as the latter dips into its second weekend in England.

Amee-Leigh Costigan takes a selfie with fans from Towcestrians rugby club at an Ireland open rraining session at Towcestrians Sports Club, Northampton. Pic ©INPHO/Ben Brady

An Olympic Games one summer, a World Cup the next. As career goals go, that makes for a damn good 12 or 13 months, and there are plenty of women ticking both boxes as the latter dips into its second weekend in England.

Brazil have made a wholesale transfer of players from the shorter form for the duration. Spain, who face Ireland tomorrow, lean heavily on the sevens crowd. Ireland themselves have five players on board who absorbed the Games experience in Paris.

New Zealand have stitched a similar thread through their squad, the phenom Jorja Miller and try-scoring machine Portia Woodman-Wickliffe among them. Superstar Ilona Maher is on board with the US. Florence Symonds has already cut loose with Canada.

Most of the 16 teams at the ongoing World Cup have some form of representation from sevens. Among Ireland’s dual players is wing Amee-Leigh Costigan who has been scoring for fun on the smaller circuit for over a decade now.

A product of Clanwilliam in Tipperary, Costigan’s 15s CV was skinny for a long time. A bit of underage and a season in the Munster Senior league. Then Covid struck and the global circus that is the sevens cycle was shut down as countries went into lockdown.

“So I put my hand up and I was selected and got my first cap in Energia Park in Donnybrook, and with no fans. Just the teammates and the coaching staff, which is so different, but I wouldn't have changed it for anything.” If that sounds simple then it’s not.

The two rugby formats are related in the same way as a chicken is to a mouse.

“I loved the challenge. I loved having to look for different ways, technically, tactically, how you manipulate space, because there is so much more space in sevens. In 15s, you've got a lot less. The kicking game as well: learning how to kick. It's something I've been doing for a few years now.

“It’s probably given me a refresher in my later years as I'm going throughout my career. It gave me something different to focus on. Equally, I enjoyed going back to sevens and qualifying for the Olympics, going to the Olympics, and then being selected again for WXV. It just shows that the pathway is here for us.” 

It’s little short of astonishing that so many players have been able to switch back and forth between sevens and 15s. Hugo Keenan’s experiences in making that change just over a year ago was an illustration in that.

A superb sevens player before breaking into the big time with Leinster, Keenan swapped back for last year’s Olympics and sevens coach James Topping made the observation that he was the only 15s player he could think of capable of doing it.

Something to do with his physiological make up.

Keenan slotted in well enough last-minute but made a couple of small but significant mistakes as Ireland’s medal ambitions slipped away and Topping said after that it might have been a tad “unfair” to have tasked him with the move in the first place.

Costigan can’s and wouldn’t, speak for anyone else. Her own experience? It’s not so difficult if the desire exists to do it, the S&Cs are “spot-on2 with the load management and the player is prepared to pile up the hours in terms of preparation.

“Mentally and tactically, it’s ‘get out your notebook’. It's watching, analysis, ask questions, reach out to coaches, reach out to teammates. But it probably is that physical demand. Sevens is so much more high-speed running and more taxing on the hammies sometimes.

“Then, you have the huge contact element in 15s against that so, as I said, if you want to do it, it's not difficult. So for me, it wasn't. I just enjoyed going back and forth, and I just continue to be someone who can do it.” 

Keenan was big on duty with Leinster and the 15s Ireland team within weeks of Paris. And he followed up another full season with a major role for the British and Irish Lions in Australia where his second-Test try clinched the series for the tourists.

The first ever women’s Lions tour is due to tour New Zealand in two years’ time. Costigan and a fair few of her Irish colleagues at this World Cup, should have their eyes on aping their male counterpart by the time that one swings around.

After all, what does the Lions demand of players but adaptability and Costigan, Eve Higgins, Emily Lane, Beibhinn Parsons and Stacey Flood have all shown plenty of that this summer and last.